History
1957 Community members led by the first chief Fried Heim met in the grange hall to start a volunteer fire department
1958 An unused 1-1/2 ton Chevy, perhaps a logging truck, was donated along with a 500 gallon irrigation tank and pump mounted on the chassis. The hand-made fire truck was housed at the Broeder Brothers Lumber Company on Mill Creek.
1962 The current main fire hall was built on land donated by the Bud Roberts family with building materials donated by Broeder mill and thousands of hours of volunteer time.
1963 To increase speed of response, Jeanine and Clyde Pederson (fire chief) created a map of all roads in Route 4, and all the firefighters’ assigned numbers to each home. At this time, a phone tree was used to alert firefighters of an emergency.
1969 First official fire truck was purchased
1973 Lake Blaine satellite station . In later years 30,000 gallons of water storage was added.
1973 Water Tender 3 (6X6 old military chassis), 4000 gallon water tank with 350gpm pump added to fleet. Later sold at Creston Auction
1978 Ford/Pierce engine 4 purchased. 750 water with 750gpm pump This was the original
1978 Main fire station addition of training and community center with a small kitchen
1981 Gary Mahugh, who joined in March 1974, becomes Fire Chief
1981 Mountain Brook Foothills satellite station, much of it built by community volunteers. In later years approximately 15,000 gallons of water storage was added for fire suppression in the area
1994 Fairmont-Egan satellite station 254. Chief Mahugh struck a deal with the Bonneville Power Administration on highway 35 to house an engine at no cost to better respond to the Egan area. The new satellite cost the department only $5K for building improvements Engine “4”. Later sold at Creston Auction
1996 New Fire Engine #1, a 2,000 gallon truck at the main hall became our second pumper/tanker
2002 Fire Engine #7, a 1999 Ford, 350 gallon Wildland/Rescue Engine at the Mountain Brook satellite
2003 Fire Engine #3, 300 gallon light rescue truck at the main station. This was our first Compressed Air Foam unit
2003 Fire Engine #4 new, 750 gallon truck at the Mountain Brook satellite. Purchased from Sour Dough Fire near Bozeman. 4X4, 750 water, 1250gpm pump, upgraded to Compressed Air Foam. This engine replaced the original #4
2006 Engine #1 upgrade to include Compressed Air Foam
2006 Fire Engine #6, 3,000 gallon truck at Lake Blaine satellite. Originally built in 1992 on a used over the road chassis. It was one of the largest pumper / tankers in the state at that time. In about 2009 the fire body was moved to a newer chassis and the unit was refurbed.
2008 Fire Engine #8, 300 gallon Rescue with Transport capability at the Lake Blaine satellite
2011 A multi-use modular unit donated from Bigfork School District was moved to Lake Blaine satellite station property
2012 Purchase property next to Creston school for new fire hall from the Arnie Grob family
2012 Fire Engine #5, 1,000 gallon reserve truck at Lake Blaine satellite Purchased used from Bigfork Fire. This engine now serves as a “Reserve Engine”.
2012 Fire Engine #2, 770 gallon truck at the Lake Blaine satellite This is a Type 3 wildland unit and it replaced the original Engine 2
2023 New Fire Engine #9, a 650 gallon Wildland Urban Interface Engine truck at the Fairmont satellite This is a 2000 model year HME / Central States Interface style engine. Put into service March of 2023. This engine is now first response engine out of FairMont Station
2023 In recent years, 3 emergency support vehicles have been added to the fleet
