Volunteer Firefighters’ Memorial - Reading, PA - Firefighter Memorials on Waymarking.com

From the Reading Fire Department History website:
The Reading Fire Department was officially organized on March 17, 1773, with the founding of the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Company. According to legend, the new company's name was being boisterously debated in the tavern where the meeting was being held, when a rainbow appeared in the eastern sky following an early spring thunderstorm, thus giving birth to the name. Since the Rainbow Company was formed on St. Patrick's Day, a shamrock appropriately became the company's insignia. Today, 236 years later, the company still exists, under its' charter name, although most firemen in the city are full-time. The Rainbow fire station is located at 8th & Court Sts., where it has been since 1870.

Research on this monument leads to the statement that Reading was the home of the first volunteer fire department in the country but additional research states that Benjamin Franklin founded the first volunteer fire department in nearby Philadelphia in 1733. Keep in mind that in 1733, the United States had not yet become a country so both statements are actually correct. Benjamin Franklin founded the first volunteer company in what would become the US but Reading was home to the first once the US had celebrated its independence from England.

Memorial Website: [Web Link] Physical address: 1100 Perkiomen Avenue Reading, PA USA 19602

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