Columbia Township Fire Department

In 1948, there were a number of local houses and farms buildings that burned.

Prior to the department being established when there was fire in Columbia Township men would grab their milk buckets and head to the fire to help their neighbors. Columbia Township was sparsely populated, mostly rural and farms at that time. The men would dip their milk buckets in a water trough and would pass the buckets to the bucket brigade in hopes of extinguishing the fire. It was noted that in the early days of firefighting, the tools used to combat the flames were mostly found around the farm. Their tools then were milk buckets and shovels. For grass fires, they used wet grain sacks. The only water they had was in buckets they brought and in cisterns or water troughs or puddles if any were around.

In December 1950, a group of men including the Columbia Township Trustee, Jay Crawford, had a meeting at the Columbia Township School to organize and establish a township fire department. LaVern Schrader was elected president and Elmer Heinley vice president at the time. In 1951, the department was officially established with LaVern Schrader elected chief and Elmer Heinley assistant chief. The department carried 25 charter members at its beginning. The first group were all farmers and neighbors.

The trustees from four townships (Columbia, Thorncreek, Union and Washington) got together and came up with the idea of a four Township Fire Department. The first truck they purchased was a 1951 Ford fire truck and carried 750 gallons of water. At that time, the truck was housed in the back of Columbia City's city hall with the city’s truck. Each township owned one-quarter of the fire truck. When there was a fire, the city driver would take the truck to whichever township needed the help. The Four Township Fire Department lasted until 1961.

In the 1950s, there were no numerical addresses, only rural routes and road numbers or road names. Columbia Township Fire Department kept a “card file” on each household in Columbia Townships territory which gave the location of each house and the buildings at that location and the number of people who lived there. It also listed the distance from intersections or specific landmarks. The card file helped the dispatchers and fireman to locate the fire calls. This card file was updated regularly by the chief, section captains and the men in their squad.

When a fire call came in, the telephone operator would notify the Columbia City Police/Fire Department and then call the chiefs in the appropriate township, who in turn would call their section captains (the township was divided into quarter sections and each captain was in charge of that section). Section captains would then call the men on their squad. Usually, the wives would do the calling while the men would head to the fire. When party lines gave way to dial phones and electronics, our department went to home fire radio monitors to receive calls. Over the years the department was outfitted with pagers and walkies.

After Columbia Township Fire Department separated from the Four Township Fire Department in 1961, Columbia Township Fire Department stayed with the Columbia City department for several years. As time went on, the benefits for the city driver and rent kept going up, it became more economical for Columbia Township to have its own station. Columbia Township’s next building to house our equipment was a rented building on Diamond Avenue. The department remained there until January 12, 1986, when the current building located at 22 E. Radio Road was dedicated.

While the lack of water presented obvious problems, it forced the firefighters to develop conservation techniques. Such techniques were the use of “fog” streams to conserve water. As the population grew in Columbia Township fighting fires changed and as did equipment. Departments took on more and more responsibilities as communities grew in our rural service area and the population grew. From just fighting fires and helping their neighbors when the department was founded, we are now involved in rescue, accident runs, medical runs, public assists, water and ice rescue and other technical venues.

Improvements were made to improve firefighters’ health and safety. Protective clothing was a knee length black rubber rain jacket and barn boots when the department was started. Today, we have fire retardant bunker jackets and pants, fire resistant boots with steel toe and steel arc and sole inserts. SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) have been a huge benefit to fire fighters’ health and safety. Firefighting techniques, equipment, OSHA and EPA requirements. State mandated training would eventually be required for fire fighters, both volunteer departments and paid departments to become certified to be able to fight fires and provide fire departments with specialty firefighting and rescue techniques and hazardous materials knowledge and more.

Columbia Township’s first fire truck was a 1961 Seagraves pumper, with a 12-cylinder gasoline engine and carried 750 gallons of water. It was bought used from the Seagraves Corporation in Clintonville, Wisconsin. Columbia Township had never had any new equipment until 1990.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Forestry Division (DNR) loaned older Military trucks to fire departments under the Federal Excess Property Program. Each department had to maintain the trucks, keep the required amount on insurance on them and display on the trucks the truck was “Provided in Cooperation with the Indiana DNR”. The trucks were refabricated by the departments at the fire departments expense. The DNR loaned our department a total of four trucks over a several year period. A 1952, GMC 21⁄2 ton 6X6 truck that the men converted to a 2,000- gallon tanker (this truck was returned due to the engine freezing up). Another 1952 GMC 21⁄2 ton 6X6 was received in its place. A 1970 International multi-purpose van was converted into an equipment truck with a generator. The last truck the department received was a 1976 JEEP 51⁄2 ton 6X6 that was converted into a grass rig/tanker and was returned to the to the DNR in April of 2022. These trucks have all been replaced with newer vehicles over the course of several years. Jim Gambrell, Harold Kyler Jr. and David Kyler provided ability to refabricate and keep the trucks operable.

We got to the point where we couldn’t get repair parts on the old DNR equipment. We needed a change, so in 1990, the Trustee purchased two new trucks, a 1990 International pumper and a 1990 International 3,000-gallon pumper/tanker. We couldn’t get rid of the Seagrave pumper, but the chassis was still good. In 1994 the department stripped everything from the Seagrave, bought and installed 1,600-gallon pro-poly tank and completely refurbished the truck. It remained in service as a tanker until when it was retired and sold in 2009 to CTFD fireman Jacob Schrader.

In October 1997, the department purchased a new 1997 Ford F-350, 4-wheel drive truck with a 250-gallon tank for fighting grass fires. This vehicle replaced the DNR grass rig/tanker. In 2006, an insulation vacuum and trailer were placed in service to remove insulation from attics.

In September 2000, a new rescue truck was delivered to the department replacing the DNR equipment van at a cost of $149,900. The last DNR vehicle, Tank 304, was removed from our inventory in April 23, 2022. The tank was removed and chassis returned to the Indiana Department of Natural Recourses, Forestry Division.

March of 2022, a used 2009 Spartan Smeal seating for 6; 5 SCBA seats, cab over rescue pumper was purchased from Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus, LLC. Union Grove, Arkansas. The truck was equipped with a 1,000-gallon polypropylene tank with a Foam Pro System, a Cummins ISC 360 HP diesel engine, Allison 3000 EV-P Automatic Transmission and a Waterous CS 1,250 GPM top-mount 1-stage pump, deck gun, LED lighting, Kabota/Mecc Alte 12.4 KW generator plus cross lays for 13⁄4 and 21⁄2 inch hose. Actual mileage 9,500 miles. The cost was $295,000.

The truck was delivered to the Columbia Township Fire Department on June 7, 2022 by a private carrier.

Driver’s training, installing radios and stocking the truck with hose and equipment and pump training continued during the summer. After a dedication and blessing of the truck service was held the truck was placed in service on September 11, 2022. Pump 302 (1990 International) was replaced by the 2009 Spartan Smeal pumper. 

The history of the Columbia Township Fire Department was gathered from the Business Meeting minutes of the department and from information shared by William Elmer Heinley. Elmer Heinley was a Charter Member and Chief of the Department for 22 years. He retired from the department in 1995 ending a 45-year career with the department.

This information was compiled by Michael Schrader.