Division of Fire

History of FAO
	In the early days (early 1800’s) of the Division of Fire volunteers manned the stations. These volunteers would use the younger volunteers as runners. These individuals would run to their respective firehouse when they heard a report of a fire, to sound the alarm and thus give their own companies a head start.
With the advent of a paid fire department, and firefighters manning the engine houses there was no one on the street to hear the alarms. So in 1864 the first alarm signals were put in service. The city was divided up into five districts with each one having one or two bell towers, therefore if an alarm came in with three rings they knew it was in district three.
	In 1868 the fire department installed a telegraph alarm system. This way when a street box was pulled, a gong sounded in the engine house and not some distant tower. It also designated a street corner and not a district, thus narrowing down the area of the possible fire and cutting response times With telephones becoming popular in 1897 and to keep pace, telephones were installed in the engine houses for the first time. To make response times even quicker springs were attached to the gong’s striker. So now when the gong was activated the springs would open the horse stall doors, unhitch the horses, and even turn up the gaslights. During 1891 and 1892 the fire alarm office moved from station three to fire headquarters on Front Street.
	The 1930’s brought big changes for the Fire Department. 1935 the first radio equipped fire department cars were purchased for the Chief and three District Chiefs. The biggest improvement came in 1938 with the installation of the Public Address System (PA). Now messages of all types could be broadcast to the engine houses. In 1941 the members of the fire alarm office turned a three-quarter ton GMC truck into a mobile communication center by adding radios, a 25-watt amplifier and a speaker system. This created mobile communication center that could travel to disasters or be used in the event something happened to the FAO and it was not operable. The fire alarm office moved into the forth floor of city hall in 1942, where it remained until 1986. Six firefighters were assigned at city hall with two men per shift manning the board with a plug and pull plug type (PBX) switchboard. During the 1970,s they averaged around 55,000 emergencies a year.
	March, 9^th, 1986 saw the opening of the FAO’s new home at 300 N. 4^th St. on the third floor of Fire Station #1. Later that year the first computers were installed, and over the next twelve months a computerized dispatching system was added. Up until this time all information and a log of all runs was kept by paper and pencil. Manpower was increased to eight firefighters to accommodate this system. Thereby creating shifts of four fighters on the board until midnight. Three call takers and one dispatcher.
The 1990’s again brought big changes to the FAO. In 1991 the fire department incorporated 800MHz radios. This gave them the capability of having several talk groups on our radio system. In March of 1993 the FAO moved to it present location. Staffing was increased to fourteen firefighters and two lieutenants on each duty day. Five firefighters and one lieutenant manned the FAO around the clock. Other improvements are a kitchen where firefighters can cook their meals, individual bedrooms, TV lounge, a separate training room complete with a working dispatch console, were each new trainee can be trained before actually sitting down in the FAO, and a classroom for additional classes. In addition the FAO has a support staff of four, a chief, an administrative aide, a lieutenant for radios communication, and a FAO trainer. All FAO trained personnel will receive Emergency Medical Dispatching (EMD) in 1998 to better assist the patient on medical emergencies, CPR instructions, childbirth, etc.