Lindsay Fire Department

History

On November 10, 1910, a group of nine pioneer Lindsay citizens, upon authorization of the city council, met in "McGregors" garage and organized themselves as a group of willing but untrained volunteers to fight fires in this city. G.C. Roberts had been designated by the city council to serve as chief of the department.

With a department organized, it's members started looking around for something to fight fires with. Because the city was short on funds, the merchants association bought 300 feet of hose, which was stored in a bin in the alley behind "McGregors" garage and dragged bodily to the scenes of fires.

The first piece of apparatus was a two-wheeled chemical cart, which was first tested on December 10, 1910. Shortly after, a two-wheeled hose cart was purchased, having a capacity of 800 feet of hose.

This is a typical one-man operation. The first engine on the scene locates a vehicle fully involved and goes into action.

In 1935 the Lindsay City Council designated D.A. Demanty as the first full time, paid chief. The department was now 20 members strong and the chief was in charge at all drills and fires. He also had assistants directly under him and the assistants were responsible for carrying out orders on down the line. Typically the chief would arrive at the scene of a fire, enter the burning building to assess the situation, and then exit to give orders to be carried out. According to fire department records, these men were busy, responding to fires of assorted types, almost every other day.

Throughout the years, the city has acquired more modernized equipment. Although it started out with only 300 feet of hose, the current fire station now houses 4 motorized pieces of equipment (not pictured is a 250 GPM mini pumper / light rescue vehicle).

One engine and one firefighter were the first to arrive at the scene of this afternoon structure fire. The cause was determined to be the misuse of combustible liquids used as a cleaning solvent.

The Fire Service Today

In 1939, the City of Lindsay Fire Department was the only city in California to receive two insurance rate reductions in a three-year span. To this day, the department realizes that fire prevention is of top priority. With this in mind, the department has an active fire prevention bureau. A few of the fire prevention bureaus responsibilities is to conduct periodic business inspections, all state mandated inspections, plan reviews and fire prevention public education. With the help of all full time personnel, fire pre-plans are continually updated.

The fire department is currently comprised of three (3) full time fire engineers. Each engineer specializes in a category (i.e.: Fire Prevention Officer, Fire Training Officer and Water Supply Officer).

Heavy rains created large problems. Firefighters sandbag Lewis Creek (east of Lindsay) at a bridge crossing in an attempt to keep water from flooding nearby homes. The firefighters' efforts paid off.

All engineers work a 56-hour workweek with one engineer on duty at all times. The fire department is a full service department providing the citizens of Lindsay with fire protection and emergency medical response.

Engineer D. Hernandez is the City's Fire Prevention Officer. He is responsible for all state-mandated and business fire inspections and reviews all site plan drawings.

Statistics

The Lindsay Fire Department's calls for service, as with all departments, have been on the increase. With a 2.5 square mile radius and a population slightly below 10,000 citizens, the fire department responded to 665 calls for the year 2000. Listed is a break-down of the calls for service:

Medical Aids / Assists 416    63%

Smoke Checks 31    4%

Vehicle Fires 19    3%

Utility Emergencies 10    1.5%

Grass/Dumpster/Debris Fires 73    11%

Hazmat Incidents 4    1%

Structure Fires 19    2.5%

False Alarms 33    5%

Traffic Accidents 27    4%

Non-Emergency Responses 33    5%

The Volunteer Fire Department

The Lindsay Fire Department is well aware that it takes more than three engineers to provide a high level of service to the citizens of Lindsay. The fire department also has a seventeen (17) member fully trained volunteer fire department. Engineer Simeral is in charge of the volunteer team and Engineer J. Herrera is in charge of training.

Firefighters operate at an injury vehicle accident at a very busy highway crossing intersection.

The volunteer fire department is highly active with fire safety activities such as Fire Prevention Week where the fire department conducts fire safety demonstrations to grades K-6 at the local elementary schools. Volunteers are also instrumental during fire department tours and assisting with fire inspections, fire suppression, and actual emergencies.

The Lindsay Volunteer Fire Department has a rank structure, which includes relief engineers. These engineers continually train and are capable of covering shifts for vacation / sick leave. Please visit our website @www.lindsayvfd.org

If you should need further information on the Lindsay Fire Department, Call (559) 562-2511.