History of the Eustis Fire Department
Hunter Gordon
Eustis Elementary School
May 10, 2012
History of the Eustis Fire Department
The Eustis Fire Department was started
in 1883, as a bucket brigade. A bucket
brigade is when firefighters either start at a
lake, such as Lake Eustis, or a water
wagon and then pass buckets of water to
each other until they reach the fire, and put
it out. The first fire truck that Eustis Fire
Department had was a hand-drawn ladder wagon. The fire department started
out with two fire stations. #1 Hose House was located at the end of West
Magnolia Avenue at Lake Eustis. #2 Hose House was located at the corner of
Howard Lane and Center Street.
During this time, the way the firemen found out there was a fire was by people
just shouting fire, but in 1887 Mr. L.N. Herrick donated Eustis Fire Department’s
first bell. The fire department hired people to be night watchmen. The job of a
night watchman is to look out for fires during the night, and then they would ring
the fire bell. They were only paid $20 a month, which in those days was a lot of
money. In 1893, the fire department bought a bigger bell that weighed 800
pounds. In 1899, the Eustis Fire Department had one of its first big fires. The
Lake Region Newspaper burned to the ground. The budgets for the fire
department during the 1800’s were never more than $1000.
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History of the Eustis Fire Department
In 1900, a gas engine pumper was bought for #1 Hose House. This pumper
was a stationary pumper, and could not be moved. It was also very hard to start,
and only one firefighter was able to do it. Unfortunately, during a bad fire, this
fireman was out of town, and the building ended up burning down to the ground.
In 1922, Eustis Fire Department bought their first motorized equipment, which
was a 500 gallon pumper truck that had a hose and a chemical tank on it. They
also hired their first paid Fire Chief that year, Edward S. Reeves. Chief Reeves
was only a fire chief for one year, because he died the very next year. 1922 was
a very busy year for the Eustis Fire Department, because this is also the year
that the famous Ocklawaha Hotel burned down. During this time, all the firemen
were volunteers except for the Fire Chief, and they would only meet a couple
times a month to learn and talk about new firefighting ideas. In the 1900’s, the
annual fire department budget was only $9,238.19.
Times have changed over the last 100 years, some were good, and some not
so good. Since the first paid fire chief, there have been twelve more, including
the current fire chief, Rex Winn. The one bad thing is that they only have one fire
station that is on West Norton Avenue but Chief Winn says they are trying to
work on getting another fire station soon. They now have eight fire trucks and
two fire boats. Some trucks are for fighting different kinds of fires, like a grass fire
or a large building fire and some are for rescuing people that are sick or hurt. The
amount of fire calls they go to went up a lot, too. In 1950, the fire department only
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History of the Eustis Fire Department
had 50 calls a year, but in 2011, they had
3,753 calls a year. Instead of only the fire chief
being paid and the rest volunteers, the Eustis
Fire Department now has 23 paid employees,
and 5 volunteers, that get paid for every call
they go to. The budget in 2011 is
$1,890,148.00.
The Eustis Fire Department has been
around for a very long time, and has a good
history. They have come a long way since 1883, and have become a very good
department. Hopefully they will continue to grow and be a big department in the
near future.
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History of the Eustis Fire Department
Fire Chiefs
Unpaid
Unknown
1883-1886
S.J. McCulloch
1886-1887
George E. Minor
1887-1888
Arthur M. Dewitt
1888-1894
H.W. Bishop
1894-1897
Arthur G. Smith
1897-1899
A.G. Smith
1899-1915
W.B.Merek
1915-1922
Paid
Edward S. Reeves
1922-1923
R.P.McKenna
1923-1924
C.L. Beldon
1924-1928
Tom Newham
1928-1928
Joe Duke
1928-1940
Raymond Hancock
1940-1946
C.C. Osborn
1946-1963
Richard A. Shirk
1963-1986
Craig E. Haun
1986-1992
Theodore M. Henderson
1992-2002
James J. Wright
2002-2004
Roy L. Tremain
2004-2009
Rex D.E. Winn
2009-present
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Bibliography
City of Eustis. Eustis Fire Department. History of the Eustis Fire Department.
Eustis: , 2009. Print.
"Eustis Fire Department." City of Eustis. City of Eustis, n.d. Web. 20 April 2012.
<http://www.eustis.org/departments/fire_department.html>.
"Eustis Fire Department History." City of Eustis. City of Eustis, n.d. Web. 20 April
2012. <http://www.eustis.org/departments/EFD_ History.pdf>.
Leeper, Mary Folk. "A History of Eustis, Florida, For Reference Use in the
Intermediate Grades." (1961): n. page. Print.
Winn, Rex. Personal Interview. 05/01/2012.
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