Historic Hood River
HRFD, 1928
11-13-2012
Notes
The Hood River Fire Department posed proudly with their 1920 La France pumper in front of Hood River City Hall in November, 1928. The firemen are identified by last names only:
Back Row: Weber, Meyer, Mellon, Collins, Volstorff, DeWitt.
Front Row: Cooper, Coulter, Ford, Bell, Alexander, Colby, Perigo, Lafferty, Morgan, Rickey.
l.e.
Nice to have a photo with the names of everyone.
Did the firemen have to live in town so they had quick access to the truck?
I looked up a couple of names:
Lafferty: Ira Ulysses 1867-1955
Perigo: Robert Benton 1881-1946
Arthur
Not a direct answer to your question, but one of the early city ordinances was to prohibit non-firemen from jumping on the truck as it went down the street gathering up the volunteers. Apparently people wanted a ride to see the fire!
Arlen Sheldrake
My memories, while much more recent than 1928 (mid 50s), are of the fire siren going off up on the bluff and the fire engine pulling up the street with volunteers coming out of their businesses and offices and jumping on the end of the fire engine. Father John L. was an active member of the HR and later West Side FDs. Those HRFD shirts were still the uniform in the 1940s and 50s at least as I clearly remember his. During Dad’s time I believe the only paid staffer was the engine driver.
l.e.
Volstorff: John Frederick. 1879-1962. He lived on 12th street. He was a garage owner and assistant fire chief. He and his wife Louisa had five children. The oldest one, Ed. is featured in the chemistry class in photo #248.
His daughter, Elburna was a long time volunteer at the HR Museum.
Judy
I remember, looking from my vantage point at the Courthouse, when the siren blew, etc. I could observe the volunteer firemen running for one of the intersections downtown as they were trying to get their gear on and then hop on the firetruck as it stopped long enough to pick them up.
John Galley
J. F. Volstorff was my grandfather. My mother (katheryn) and I lived with the Volstorff’s above the hardware store at 12th and Taylor during WW2 while my dad was in the navy. Grandpa was the chief of the H R fire department for 28 years and I have his badge. Several of the firemen in the 40’s were Johnny Murry and Bernard Farra
Susan Collons Stebner
Claude Collins was my grandfather. He would take me to the fire hall and let me slide down the pole. Best babysitter ever!