History of the Eustis Fire Department

Hunter Gordon

Eustis Elementary School

May 10, 2012

1 History of the Eustis Fire Department

May 10, 2012

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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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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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.

4 History of the Eustis Fire Department

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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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10 History of the Eustis Fire Department

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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.