Excerpts from the Champaign News Gazette:

On Wednesday, the Champaign Fire Department marked a major milestone—its 150th anniversary. Just one day later, the city’s oldest living firefighter, Pete Lipscomb, turned 91 years old.

Lipscomb served with the department from 1951 to 1985, spending 34 years in the fire service. On Tuesday, he visited Station No. 1 and reflected on how much the department has changed since he first joined nearly 64 years ago.

Back then, the fire trucks were basic—open-cab models with sirens placed right next to the driver’s ear, which was often Lipscomb’s seat. “That’s why I have these,” he said, pointing to his hearing aids.

The technology wasn’t there either. Firefighters used paper maps to find their way, and during downtime, they would quiz each other on street locations. If the driver got lost, they had to follow the smoke, he joked.

Equipment was also far less advanced. In the early days, only one firefighter per shift had a smoke mask. The rest had to fight fires and then step outside for fresh air, which, as Lipscomb put it, is why he now has COPD.

Deputy Chief John Barker added that firefighting has evolved dramatically over the past 150 years. When the department started in 1865, it was all volunteers, and horses helped carry firefighters to the scene. By the 1880s and 1890s, the department began paying its members.

In those early days, the city relied on a bucket brigade, where people passed water from a hand pump to extinguish fires. Firefighters also worked to demolish parts of buildings to stop the spread of flames.

Instead of 911 calls, the city would ring a bell on top of the city hall building to signal where a fire was happening. Later, steam-powered engines were introduced, but by 1915, Champaign got its first motorized fire engine after a devastating fire on Lewis Street caused $800,000 in damage—equivalent to about $18.8 million today.

To celebrate the department’s big anniversary, there will be a fire apparatus parade and firefighter muster on July 19, from noon to 5 p.m. The parade will start at the Illinois Fire Service Institute at noon, heading west on Kirby Avenue, then north on Mattis Avenue, and east on University Avenue to Champaign Central High School, arriving around 12:30 p.m. The muster will take place in the parking lot at the corner of Washington and Walnut streets starting at 1 p.m.

Thanks, Dan

 

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