(bright upbeat music) - Up next on Keystone Stories, volunteer firefighters.

(bright upbeat music) - Welcome to Keystone Stories.

All across Pennsylvania, thousands of citizens are volunteering to protect our lives and property.

In fact, more than 97% of all firefighters in the Commonwealth are volunteer.

Such service organizations even predate the US Constitution.

(bright upbeat music) (fire fighter siren) With just over 1800 registered departments, Pennsylvania is home to more volunteer fire companies than any other state in the nation.

One of our forefathers, Benjamin Franklin, brought the idea of a fire company to Philadelphia after seeing them in action in Boston.

He helped organize the Union Fire Company in 1736.

The volunteers and Ben Franklin's Bucket Brigade as they were known improved the city's success rate in fighting blazes.

He wrote, "The flames have often been extinguished before The house in which they began has been half consumed."

As our nation grew and cities and towns were built, so grew the risk.

- Imagine, an early 19th century city.

These cities are composed almost entirely of wood.

People are cooking on open hearths.

There is no zoning regulation determining what can be where.

So, what you have is the most incredibly flammable conditions imaginable.

People who live in cities realize this.

How are they gonna keep their cities from burning down?

Guess what?

Men volunteer to take over this responsibility.

(bright upbeat music) Before 1850, there were no paid firemen.

They were all volunteer.

(bright upbeat music) When a fire would break out, which happened all the time bells would ring out.

The men who were in the fire company would drop whatever they were doing.

They would rush to the firehouse and then they would rush with that fire engine out of the house and down the streets to get to the fire first.

To be the company that made it to the fire first was a big honor.

(bright upbeat music) In the early 19th century anytime a fire company went out to a fire a group of boys would be following along, cheering on their favorite company, and they would become apprentices to the company where they would learn the skills that they needed to fight fires.

(crowd cheering) - The same enthusiasm for protecting the community around them is alive and well in today's volunteer fire service.

- I mean, part of it is the adrenaline, the rush.

There's nothing like two, three o'clock in the morning being woken up to your pager but always just giving back.

I mean, I grew up around it.

I've seen it, and just the community support that you get.

It's unreal.

- When I first started as a firefighter here 14 years ago I joined just to be a social member to be able to help out with fundraisers and everything but I caught the bug - Community that you have with other members getting to know people within the community from serving them, you know going out and it might be their worst day but you're there to make it a little bit better.

(bright upbeat music) - Now, in the early 19th century, a lot of the volunteer firemen did not themselves own property.

They were renters so they are really protecting the property of people who are more wealthy than them.

Why are they doing this without pay?

And what I realized when I did my research on these volunteer fire companies is it doesn't matter which city you're looking at.

The situation is basically the same.

Men are getting a lot of public honor and a claim for belonging to volunteer fire companies.

(bright upbeat music) There were a few women who fought fires alongside the men.

There was an African American woman in New York who fought in a fire company.

The most famous female firefighter from the 19th century is a woman named Lillie Hitchcock Coit in San Francisco.

Anybody who has been to San Francisco has probably seen Coit Tower which is shaped like a fire hose nozzle.

She endowed a fire company and she took the right to fight fires alongside the guys in the company.

You don't see fire companies, particularly paid fire companies in big cities start to integrate women into them until the 1980s.

- Well, firefighting and family go hand in hand.

My mom was one of first two female firefighters in the Logan Fire Company back in the 1970s.

My dad was a firefighter, my stepdad was a firefighter.

Both my brothers were firefighters so it's just kind of in the blood.

- Karen Walls found connection to both family and community by becoming a volunteer firefighter in the Logan Fire Company No.1, located in Bellefonte.

- My grandfather was Robert Bills.

He was a volunteer firefighter in the Marion Fire Department over in western Pennsylvania.

He was one of the founding members and he was also fire chief for 15 years.

He had a fire truck that sat beside the driveway all our life with always a memory that when you think of grandma and grandpa's farm and going to see them you always think of the firetruck sitting there.

My family growing up was very community oriented.

Our parents instilled that very early on that we should be involved in the community in helping.

Probably just the last five years I felt like I needed to be more involved in the community, a little bit more rooted in the community.

(bright upbeat music) Walking my dog, I walk by the fire department all the time and so I wonder what all that would entail.

I wonder if I could even physically do that.

Then I reached out and they got back to me very quickly and I think in joining the fire department I really did not know what to expect.

- Fox 56 10, the Borough Bell for an automatic fire alarm, company one, company two, do.

(bright upbeat music) - There were a lot of times where I thought I physically cannot do this.

There were definitely times where I had more self doubt that I could do it than everybody else around me.

You're in that group and no one wants anybody else to fail.

(indistinct chatter) Everybody in the fire department wants everybody to do well even if they're in a different company or different age group because we never know on what call we're all gonna be working together anyway.

I found that I can physically do some things that I thought there was no chance I could do.

Once I kind of saw, "Okay, maybe I can do this."

It very much became a, "Okay, I wanna make sure I achieve this."

(bright upbeat music) It's given me a whole different family of people that I might not have known or interacted with before.

As I've moved a lot for my job that's something I've been missing.

Helping with the Logan Fire Department, I feel like it's just kind of reconnected to meet my community.

I really love my community.

We always joked, my grandpa and I both love to wear hats.

I think he would be most proud of that hat that I wear now, helmet.

(bright upbeat music) - The first time I met Karen I found a very enthusiastic individual.

I knew she would go far in the fire service.

She is a very strong individual.

She's great at what she does, she's caring, she's kind and I think she's exactly what a volunteer firefighter needs to be.

(bright upbeat music) - Beyond protecting life and property volunteer fire companies are usually behind a number of other events in the communities where they live.

Carnivals, bingo, safety courses community meals, celebrations, and of course parades.

- One thing that volunteer firemen did was parade.

They loved parading.

In fact, most fire companies had separate uniforms just for parades.

And these are beautiful uniforms, brightly colored.

They had special hats for Parade Day and they loved just having people cheer them on.

- While many of these events foster community spirit they also provide valuable income to the fire companies themselves.

And fundraising isn't the only challenge for these organizations.

(bright upbeat music) - Number one, we're a family here, but number two there's a place for everybody.

We just took in a couple new members that are just going to be social members to be able to help out with the institution that we have here and that's what's needed.

Those people may go on to be the treasurer or the secretary or even maybe the president at some time.

- So we need people to help.

We need people in fundraising situations and people to run calls.

We need the younger generation to step up and take on the rules of our ancestors.

- Where duty calls there, you will find us.

That is the motto of many volunteer fire departments across Pennsylvania and beyond.

- Firefighters are the most beloved public servants.

There's so few occupations in America that people support in the way that they support volunteer firefighters.

They're not out for the money.

They're not doing it for anything except to help other people.

- Fundraising is a vital part of the survival of volunteer fire companies and many departments are very creative with how they raise money.

The team from Howard took their long shot idea and really made a splash.

- I'm George Demchack and I'm here on behalf of the Howard Volunteer Fire Company and I'm speaking about the Howard Volunteer Fire Company's, Fall Punkin' Chunkin' Festival.

In the beginning I was thinking of a fundraiser for the fire company and you know, a fall fundraiser a festival came to mind but fall festivals are kind of a dime a dozen so you really need something special.

And one day when I was driving, I was thinking about the punkin chunkin that I saw on television and I thought, you know, we could bring that here and talk about something unique and a draw.

People really embraced it and were really thrilled to have it.

We started relatively modest.

I believe we started out with maybe 50 craft vendors and a few food vendors.

We had 10,000 people show up that year for our grand opening event.

We almost had to postpone the event the first year.

You know, where do you find a launching machine that can hurl an eight to 10 pound pumpkin 600, 800, 1100 feet at breakneck speed so it just splashes into the lake.

Someone, probably an hour and a half away from here he's a school teacher and his class had built one.

They said they, they would bring it.

They canceled on me at the last minute and you know as luck would have it, we had a brand new member an engineer by trade, and I remember the look on his face.

He was there, "I can build one of those."

We had our own machine and we were in business.

The festival has grown now where we actually attract nationally recognized launching teams.

Teams come from Ohio, New Hampshire, Delaware to come to our event, but we also attract a wide variety of local launching machines.

We've gotten fantastic support from DCNR and Bald Eagle State Park.

The pumpkins are donated from a nearby Amish farm.

Part of our arrangement with the park is when the pumpkins splash down in the lake, we pick up all those floating pumpkins, we bring them back to shore.

They are trucked back over to the Amish farm where it goes to the pigs for food.

You know, volunteer fire companies across the nation are in real distress right now.

The amount of money that comes from townships and municipalities and any kind of tax in our area only makes up 17% of our annual budget.

When Punkin Chunkin started, it brought in $12,000 the first year and we're averaging close to 25,000 each year after that.

The apparatus has been upgraded.

The safety equipment which the responders wear have been updated.

Also, by having an increase in funding we're now able to have our members attend more training which in turn makes it safer for everyone.

The public has asked us to make it a two day event.

We would love to, I would love to see maybe schools or different groups build their own launching machines, come and compete in different age groups but right now we just don't have the membership to volunteers to sustain that.

So if we can get more members, you know we'd like to see this thing really blossom into more than what we have now although we are quite thankful for what it is.

Hello, I'm James Greenville.

I'm speaking today about the Kane Volunteer Fire Department.

We started with four departments back in 1886 and then in 1969 we consolidated in one station on Poplar Street where the west side hose company was.

Dr. Harry Gardner, known by everybody in Kane as Doc Gardener was probably the most famous fireman.

He was our department chief for 28 years.

He was a dentist and had his own practice in the middle of town.

Funny thing with Doc, there's many, many stories of doc people being in his dentist chair and him running off and leaving them sit in the chair.

So 1985, May 31st was the tornado that devastated our community.

Ravished more than 100 houses, took three lives for the next two weeks.

The fire department was the heartbeat of the community.

Politicians started to show up and help from all over the country.

That's where the organization was all done out of our station.

The Walmart fire was right in the middle of town.

That was in 1976, was a very significant fire.

After the fire, the lot sat vacant for many years until just a few years ago when it became the amphitheater which is now the nice park in the middle of town.

Today, the fire services evolved so much.

Firefighting is maybe only 20% of what we do today.

Medical calls, assistance with helping ambulance also car accidents have overtaken the amount of fires that we have.

We're six unit department.

We have three class A engines.

Class A meaning of large engine.

We have a heavy-duty rescue truck a utility truck and chief wanted me to get in here.

We have a 95 foot tower and it's the only volunteer department in McCain County that has a tower.

One of the strength of our department is we've had members from all the different generations.

When you look at departments that have problems getting enough manpower it's usually because they miss a generation and then there's a communication gap between the older members and the younger members and we've been fortunate enough never to have that.

Very fortunate to have the number of members that we have.

I've been a member for 40 years.

I was approached by an existing member when I had taken pictures of a major fire and he asked me to join to become a photographer for the department.

I went to my first fire school and and liked it so much I became a firefighter instead of a photographer.

- Ever since the early days of firefighting there has been a spirit of competition between companies.

This next clip was produced by WPSX in 1977 and features organized competitions between area departments.

These skill-based events also served as training and practice for members.

(bright upbeat music) - Probably wanted something to do, you know, they joined to fight fires, like the only Amish's and content like these.

Here you have to have activity to keep interactions (indistinct) (bright upbeat music) (indistinct chatter) - Volunteer firemen have been called boys who never grew up and at times that's hard to argue with, but most of them are family men who work as hard as they play.

- I think it's more or less just I get together for the fire companies to, to get to know each other.

I find that it's helped me and I know a lot of other guys it's helped.

It's out actually when you get to the fire because they know they know what to do when a hose breaks they know how to break, break it down and get their hook back up and have water within the next within 30 seconds because they've done it before.

They know what they're doing and if you don't have it, the guys are really strong.

(bright upbeat music) - Let's go.

(men cheering) - Hi, my name's Jason Clark.

I'm gonna talk today about the Independent Hose Company No.1 of Jersey Shore.

It's the very first firehouse here in the borough Jersey Shore.

The Independent Hose Company was chartered on October 2nd, 1902.

There was a very big fire that occurred and it burned both sides of the block from Allegheny Street to Smith Street.

At the time, Jersey Shore did not have an organized fire department.

Several individuals in the town decided to get together started hatching out an idea to start organized fire protection.

On October the 2nd, they got a charter from the Le County Courts and Independent Hose Company No.1 of Jersey Shore became a real thing.

The original firehouse was stationed over here on Smith Street and what is now the borough building and we had a team of horses that pulled our wagons to the fires.

Back before the days of the fire whistle and all the major styles was in town.

They would actually have a red light with a bell and basically what would happen is the borough operator when there was a fire would get called in.

They would push a button and that would set the alarm off and the bell and the light would go off and that would basically alert the firefighters.

Say, "Hey, you need to respond to the firehouse and take care of a call."

One of the stories that I was told by my grandfather was back in 1960 during the carnival the Ferris wheel came off the pedestal.

My grandfather got a chain out of his trunk of his car chained, the center hub of the Ferris wheel to the pedestal it had come off of and they literally had to do a church read ladder and they brought a ladder truck in from Lock Haven and they actually rescued everybody off the Ferris wheel.

It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of training.

People don't realize the amount of training goes into being a firefighter.

You put in, 180 hours of training just to become a firefighter and state of Pennsylvania.

As payment for that being Its volunteer service is the pride.

If it's gone through your family you're carrying on family tradition.

I'm fourth generation.

I grew up in the firehouse.

A lot of the old timers that are still there remind me as a young kid running around the firehouse babysitting me when my dad would go out on calls.

It's been in my blood all my life and it's just what I always wanted to do.

- The Alpha Fire Company here in State College has been active for well over a century.

In that time a lot of fire trucks have come and gone.

This next story is that of a man who is preserving the history of many of these machines.

(bright upbeat music) - I've never considered myself a collector of fire trucks.

(bright upbeat music) I've considered myself someone that seeks out important pieces of history.

(bright upbeat music) At first, my goal was to recapture some of my childhood.

(bright upbeat music) It was just a magical time in my life.

(bright upbeat music) Currently the collection is housing approximately 35 pieces 10 of which are retired alpha units and I have a few distributed at a couple a museum entities that are in the state of Pennsylvania.

(bright upbeat music) It's important to me as a temporary custodian of history to make sure that significant pieces are returned to their communities, are returned to their locals.

(bright upbeat music) The whole goal is to keep people safe and to make sure that we're all doing our best for the community.

And I think that's one of the things that embodies the Alpha Fire Company throughout our history from 1899 to present and I'm fortunate that I have the ability to acquire, house and maintain and share a number of our pieces of retired apparatus that range from 1923 to 1981.

(bright upbeat music) I just have always felt a very tight tie to the history of the preservation of life and property.

(bright upbeat music) - My name is Craig Hudson.

I'm a resident of Cameron County, born and raised here.

I'm here today representing Mountaineer Search and Rescue.

Our specialty is wilderness search which we go out and find anyone who's in the woods past when they're not supposed to be.

The call comes in from a number of sources but ends up with the county emergency manager.

He then goes online and activates our electronic pagers.

It tells everybody that there's a search.

We'll then respond to the shed with our equipment and be dispatched from there to wherever the scene is, but we really never know until we get there what we're gonna be looking for.

Then they'll start signing tracking team.

It can be man trackers who will go out and follow the trail to get a direction to travel the individual if possible.

Then we'll send out the two man hasty teams which will walk up all the watersheds.

Typically, a person who's lost and getting tired will go downhill and find them in the valley more frequently than on top and will continue that till we find them.

Usually takes us a little less than three hours from the time our pagers go off until we actually have our hands on the person.

But part of that is due to searching at night in bad weather and at night it can be very dangerous.

We had one search where there was several fire departments and I think they said there were three or four members of the fire departments had to be taken to the hospital because injuries they sustained out in the field whereas our team has never had an injury.

I always joke around that it's a good excuse to go to for a walk in the woods at night without the wife getting upset.

However, I've been a hundred fishermen all my life and I've always thought that if I have something happen that leaves me stuck out in the woods I hope there's a team like this, it'll come get me.

And so I participate in the local tea.

- Thank you to all who volunteer to serve our communities.

See you next time on Keystone Stories.

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