Irwin Fire Department - Firehouses on Waymarking.com

excerpted form the department website:
The first meeting of the citizens of Irwin Borough to form a fire company was held in 1873. John D. Brown, one of the oldest and most influential citizens was chairman of the meeting and immediately an organization was formed and launched known as The Capitol Fire Company of Irwin. Later the first officers were elected. President: John D Brown, Vice President: Charles Meerhoff, Secretary: George F. Kifer, Treasurer: C. W. Pool. Then in April 1876 the Constitution and the first set of By laws were written.

In 1873 the citizens of Irwin Borough formed a fire Department. Now it was time to pick a name. In 1874 they put in a application for a charter and By Laws. They did this by going to the Court Of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County. The name they picked was “Capitol Fire Company of Irwin Pa”. This name lasted till it was changed in ____ to “Irwin Volunteer Fire Dept” or “Station 57”.

The Irwin Capitol Fireman’s Relief Assoc. was incorporated on June 14, 1913. The name was changed on September 14,1984. The Relief was notified by the law firm of Mahady & Mahady that the legal work was completed and the new name of the relief assoc. was changed from Irwin Capitol Fireman’s Relief Assoc to the new name of The Irwin Volunteer Fire Department Relief Association. The Ladies Auxiliary was organized on February 1971. They got there charter on February 1973.

Then came proposition for adequate facilities to fight fire. A campaign was started to secure funds for the purchase of a hand pump style, together with a hose carriage and a hand pumper were purchased from a Syracuse (N.Y.) Fire Dept by Irwin Borough Council.

After the hand pumper and the hose cart was purchased, they had to find a place to house the purchased equipment. The boro build the first fire station on Main Street at Police Ally where the current borough building stands today. When the borough build the new borough building at Main and Police Ally the fire station was moved to the rear of the borough building in Western Ally. The fire dept moved into the new borough building on Main St. the original hand pumper and hose cart served in Irwin Borough between 1872 and 1917. Later the fire dept was moved into the West Penn Garage on Western Ave. after the fire at the Borough building.

The next thing to be done was to get a fire alarm system at The Crescent Brewery which was located at PA Ave and Main St in North Huntingdon Twp. Inside of the Crescent Brewery was a steam operated fire siren. It blew long and short blasts to indicate where the fire was and every household had a card with a code so they knew where the fire was. Later the fire siren was moved to the Faceing Mill. The Faceing Mill was located south of the bridge on Rt. 30. When the Faceing Mill was destroyed by fire it was moved to the Irwin Borough building on Main Street where it currently still is. Today it blows six blasts fire.

After the company was ready for duty of fighting fires the facilities for getting water supply for fighting fires were not the best. They had to go to the banks of Brush Creek and had to hand pump the water to the uptown to fight the fire. A few years later they received a cistern system that they became apparent with and Irwin Borough Council built fire cisterns. They were made of brick 10 feet by 20 feet and where located at Fourth St. near the U P Church, Chestnut St. near the Swedish Church, Sixth St. near the Baptist Church, Main St. Opposite the old Irwin School House now the borough building and one opposite the Brunswich Hotel at the corner of 2nd St. and Main st.

For the inadequate water supply from the cisterns and Brush Creek the borough of Irwin begun to work on bringing water to the Borough from what was known as Mountain Water. This was started in May of 1888. It was finished in the same year and the fire plug was installed in the Borough of Irwin.

Getting back to the hand pumper, it put in service from 1874 to 1917. The old hand pumper serviced not only in Irwin Borough, two separate occasions it was loaded on a railroad flat car and taken to Manor Borough and City of Greensburg to fight a fire. The other fire was at the Jersey Cereal Company in North Huntingdon Twp. It was taken to the fire by a team of horses owned by C. W. Sesenich. The hose to fight the fire was taken on the Herminie Street Car. The hand pumper was taken out of service in 1917.

At that time the borough purchased a 1917 500 gallon American La France. When this truck was purchased it was the only truck of its type in the surrounding communities. It served the communities till 1928 when Irwin Borough began to expand into a larger community which required a larger pumper.

Paid or Volunteer: Volunteer EMS Involvement: yes Has 911 Dispatch: no Has Emergency Call Box: no Has Emergency Siren: yes Has Fire Pole: no Average Alarms Per Year: 375 Number of Firetrucks: 4 Related Website: [Web Link] Physical Address: 518-526 Western Ave Irwin, PA USA 15642 Number of Emergency Staff: 17 Rating:

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