Attendance: Mary Fair, Colleen Black, Laura Robbins, Irene Pinkston, Judy Clevenger, Bobbie Martin, Margaret Allard, Lloyd Brown, Jane Shelton, Don Hunnicutt, William Westcott, Howard Harvey, Diana Davis, Dick Raridon, David Miller, Bill Wilcox, Jeanie Wilcox, Pat Clark, Wayne Clark, Fay Martin, Susan Gawarecki, Bill Tewes, Anne McBride, Martin McBride, Howard Harvey, Irene Pinkston, Tom Scott, Janet Scott, Jim Harris, Charlie Clark, Don McGuire, Keith McDaniel, Charlie Hensley and David Heck.

The meeting began at 7:05 PM in the Wildcat Den Room of the Midtown Community Center.  There were 34 people present (see attachment 1 on file.)

ORHPA President, Keith McDaniel presided at the meeting.  Keith announced he will be hosting the Secret City Film Festival this coming week at the Oak Ridge Playhouse in Jackson Square.  The film festival runs from 6 p.m. on Thursday evening (which is free family night) through Sunday evening October 12. More information is available on the website www.secretcityfilmfestival.com.

Bobbie Martin reported the ORHPA Historic Properties Committee will be presenting the first ever “Excellence in Preservation Planning Award” to the TN Department of Transportation and the DOE on Monday morning, October 6 at 10:30 a.m. at the west end “Turnpike Gate House.”  Everyone is welcome to attend the presentation.

Our program committee chairman, Bill Wilcox, introduced Dr. Tom Scott as our guest speaker for the evening. The topic of Tom’s talk was “The History of Firefighting in Oak Ridge.” Tom is a collector of fire engineers and fire alarm systems.  He is a lifelong volunteer firefighter, having served with fire companies in Alabama, Rhode Island, South Carolina and here in Tennessee as his avocation.   He served in the navy, acquired an MS in Nuclear Science from Auburn and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida.   After retiring from DOE, Tom became an Associate Professor at UT Knoxville, College of Engineering where he taught engineering fundamentals.   

Tom purchased his first fire engine while he was a student at Auburn.  He later sold it to buy an engagement ring for his future wife.  Today he has 3 American LaFrance fire engines (vintage 1923, 1929 and 1958) in his collection here in Oak Ridge.

Tom noted that he had relied for much of his information on the work of Don McGuire who wrote the “History of the Oak Ridge Fire Department.”  According to Tom, the early years of the Oak Ridge Fire Department, 1943 to 1945 were “rapid expansion years.”  The first fire station was a shed out at the Elza Gate in 1943.  The first actual fire station in a building was located behind the Oak Ridge Utility District’s former building next to the bus station.  This building was not in use for very long. Eventually there were 10 fire stations.  The firefighters were organized in companies as in the military model.  Each fire station had l truck, a fire chief, a battalion chief for each shift (which were 24 hours), a fire company captain for each fire engine and firefighters.   During the war years, in order to help maintain the secrecy of Oak Ridge’s existence, the fire trucks sent here by the government were sold to the U.S. Treasury for use in Oak Ridge.

The years from 1946 to 1956, Tom referred to as the “gradual retrenchment years.” The number of fire stations went from 9 down to 4.  The number of Fire Companies reduced from 12 to 4.  The number of fire department personnel went from 171 to just 49.  As so many of the personnel here were fairly young during the war years, most of the early experienced manpower came in as retired firefighters from Knoxville.  In the early 1950’s they received surplus fire engines from Savannah River which could only reach a high speed of 45 miles per hour.  Troy Richardson served as the Fire Chief from 1946 to 1965.  Station #2 has a tombstone for the fire station mascot “Chief” the Dalmatian who liked to ride on the newer “American LaFrance Engine.”   Between 1950 and 1953 the Oak Ridge Fire Department took over the Y-12 Fire Department until Y-12 was able to hire their own personnel.

Tom discussed some of the major fires in Oak Ridge’s history.  The first one was on October 11, 1944 at the A & P Supermarket at Jackson Square.  The second was on January 21, 1945 at a large dormitory on Jefferson Circle.  The Gamble Valley Shopping Center caught fire on July 27, 1951.  This particular fire was immortalized in a drama taped by the Fire Department complete with someone acting the part of “Chief” the Dalmatian (copies are still available for purchase from Dave Miller).  The Central Cafeteria Fire took place on July 10, 1964.  This fire could be seen by Oak Ridge residents for a very long distance.  Tom commented the building was filled with gas which flashed.  On April 10, 1977 there was one fatality when Cambridge Hall caught fire.   More recently, on March 14, 2002 there was a fire with one fatality at West Outer Drive at Westlook.  On December 30, 2004, the First Christian Church burned almost completely.

From 1945 to 1960 there were no new firemen.  Tom referred to the years from 1966 to 1972 as the “Progressive years.”  Jack Lee was appointed fire chief in 1966.  In the early years, Martin’s Funeral home was the ambulance service.  Since so few people had telephones, a system of pole mounted call boxes was set up around town to call the fire department.

Oak Ridge won a national contest in 1947 for “Fire Prevention Week.”  They had a parade in the Jackson Square area and crowned a “Miss Flame.”

In 1947 there were 736 calls made where fire alarm responses took place.  In 2007 there were 4009 calls made where fire and paramedics both made responses.  Today all fire department responses have paramedics attached as well. Tom noted that he prefers the “red and white” engines as opposed to the lime green and yellow ones and that “fire scenes are organized chaos.”

Bill Wilcox thanked Tom for coming to speak with us.  Bill also announced that at our next monthly meeting on November 13 we will be hearing from Katy Brown, President of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Mick Wiest.  They will be speaking about “ORHPA Preservation Priorities and Heritage Tourism in Oak Ridge.”

The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.

Minutes Respectfully Submitted,

Anne McBride,

Secretary, ORHPA

October 10, 2008