Gates-Chili Fire Department is 75 years
old
Volunteers to dedicate
new station on June 29 as part of the celebration.
Rochester
Democrat & Chronicle – Gary McLendon
GATES – One
hundred years ago, town residents fought fires by forming
bucket brigades and drawing water from wells and ponds.
And when the Gates
Protective Association was formed in 1927, its one piece of
equipment was a horse-drawn hose truck with 40 and 60 gallon tanks
and hand-held fire extinguishers on each side.
The Association became
the Gates-Chili Fire Department in 1932.
A bell atop a windmill at
St. Mary’s Farm on Fisher Road was used to alert volunteers to fire
calls.
Members answered calls on
horse back, bicycles, and foot. Then and now their actions
demonstrate a desire to serve Gates residents.
This month, the
Gates-Chili Fire Department is celebrating its 75th
Anniversary.
From 1 to 3 p.m. on June
29, the department will celebrate the dedication of new Fire Station
1 on Chili Avenue near Howard Road.
A private banquet
honoring the department’s 75th anniversary also will pay
tribute to the New York City Fire Department. A New York firefighter
will attend the dedication ceremony and banquet.
“We are going to honor
the FDNY,” Gates-Chili Chief Kevin Kassman said. “We thougt it
would be nice for everything that FDNY has been through, and let
them know we are with them.”
On June 30, the
department, as part of the town’s Independence Day celebration, will
sponsor a fireworks show and parade beneath a 20-by-30-foot American
flag on the grounds of the Gates-Chili High School.
The department will also
show off its oldest firetruck, a 1933 Mack-International that
department members repurchased with $8,000 in private funds from a
private collector in Maryland in May. The truck’s original price
was about $2,500.
A lot has changed since
the Gates-Chili department began.
Future renovation plans
for Fire Station 3 on Coldwater Road will also create some new
history for the fire department, as will its inclusion in a new
public safety building at Rochester Technology Park. The facility
will house the town’s fire, police, and ambulance administrative
offices.
Retired Fire Chief Dick
Ambeau, current department board member Robert Ayotte, past fire
commissioner Jim Werth and Gates Fire District Commissioner
William Gillette say department members have plenty to feel good
about.
Ayotte and Weath were
part of a group that helped the department obtain the old firetruck.
“It’s in good mechanical
condition for 69 years old,” said Ayotte. “It runs like a top.”
“The truck needs to be
re-chromed, and repainted. We’ll put together a committee to
research the cost,” Werth said.
As plans for the truck,
new buildings and the 75th anniversary celebrations
continue, the four men recently took time to reminisce at Fire
Station 1.
Dick Ambeau said he
practically grew up in the fire department. His father, Richard,
was one of its earliest volunteers, and his mother, Flo, was a fire
dispatcher for 16 years.
Dick Ambeau, 73, began
volunteering in 1950. He served as Chief from 1967 to 1974.
“During my period as
Chief, I think I burned down half of the Town of Gates,” said Ambeau
He quickly added that the
owners of several old barns and farmhouses asked the department to
burn them down to make way for housing and commercial development.
“It was used for
training,” Ambeau explained.
Gillette reminded Ambeau,
once a milkman, of the times he would show up at fires in a milk
truck. “We had to go out and get ice to keep the milk cold,” Gillette
said.
But Gillette just shook
his head and smiled when Ambeau recalled that Gillette climbed down
into an underground fuel tank to photograph corrosion.
The conversation turned
serious when Ambeau recalled wading through a nearly-waist-high pool
of gasoline to close a valve on a giant fuel storage tank near
Scottsville Road.
“It was a serious
situation. One spark and it was all over,” Ambeau said.
It was clear that, in
addition to saving lives and property, the firefighters share a
camaraderie that is a precious benefit of serving in the Gates-Chili
Fire Department.
“I think the biggest
change I have seen is the lack of volunteers now. Years ago, we had
to pull guys off the firetruck because we had too many on it,”
Ambeau said.
“People don’t realize
what they are missing by not joining an organization like this.
There are a lot of friendships.”
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