History of The Lowell Area Fire Department

Established in 1860

It is thought that the Lowell Fire Department may have started around the late 1850's, but what is known for sure is that on July 16th, 1861, the Village of Lowell paid for a used hand pumped engine, a hose cart, and 500 feet of fire hose from the City of Detroit. On July 21, 1861 the City of Detroit council disbanded eight of the twelve hand engine companies, one of them coming to Lowell. On July 23, 1861 the Village of Lowell re-appointed the chief engineer and the East and West fire wardens for one more year. Back then the fire chief was called the chief engineer, the assistant fire chief was called the fire warden. Fire wardens were appointed to the East and West sides of the Flat River. The fire trucks that were used then were hand engines that were pulled by horses and pumped by the Protection Fire Company No. 1, which had 49 members. Firemen back then received a certificate stating that they were firemen and they did not have to pay taxes. Most of the firemen at this time were business men of the village. In 1867, the fire companies had uniforms that were made from red flannel with black velvet cuffs and collars four inches wide. The fire hook and ladder company had the same but their cuffs and collars were blue. Mills built in Lowell at this time had fire pumps attached to them for in the event of a fire.

An ordinance past in 1887 let Lowell couplet a reservoir, water mains, fire hydrants and a steam powered pump of 45 horse power that could pump one million gallons per day. In the year 1900, the firefighters of Lowell were paid $2.00 a month and were fined a dollar for not going to a fire. A fifty cent fine was issued for not going to a fire meeting. The village marshal attended all fires in order to keep away suspicious and disorderly persons. Also, all able-bodied men that were by the fire had to help put out the fire or be fined or taken to jail.

The first hand engine was purchased on July 18, 1861.

The first steam engine was purchased December 26, 1884 from Mansfield Machine Works.

The first gasoline powered fire truck was a 1923 Chemical engine.

The first fire truck that had a gasoline powered pump was a 1935 Reo by the Seagrave Fire Equipment Co. It had a 500 GPM pump with a 250-gallon booster tank. The truck cost $3,813.07 and was purchased on July 28, 1935.

There were many fires that turned out to be disastrous in Lowell. One started at about 8:00 Saturday morning on January 18, 1884. Fire broke out in the second floor of the Somerby Building East of the post-office, and although discovered early, the flames rapidly spread out of control and it was then evident that many more buildings would go with it. The fire also reached over the bridge and burned four wooden buildings on the South side. Help was asked early from Grand Rapids including their No.2 Steam Fire Engine, but the run to Lowell was a lengthy 25 minutes. The Lowell Flouring Mill was seriously threatened and had it not been for the mill's force pump and hose the mill would have burned and with it the whole East portion of Union block. In all, 20 buildings were destroyed, and some of the surviving buildings are still standing within the North side of the 100 block of Main St.

The year of 1905 was disastrous for Lowell. On April 11th, a fire took the Negonce block north of Main St. between the river and Monroe St.. The fireman found a fearful task before them when they found eight to ten buildings in flames all at once. At one time it looked like as if the entire East end of the town would be destroyed, but an engine from the City of Grand Rapids arrived after a delay in Ada due to a train.

In March of 1909, the village reorganized the fire department to only eleven men including the fire chief, firing all of the others. It is also believed that two months later, the firehouse is destroyed by fire. The engine house is moved to the new City Hall building at 301 E. Main St.

King Milling Company was destroyed by fire on March 7, 1943 even with mutual aid from the City of Ionia, Grand Rapids and the county road commission fire truck out of Ada.

In 1945, fire destroyed all three stories of the Gamble store in the Hosley Building at 220 W. Main St. In 1958, a fire in the 100 block of E. Main St. destroyed seven stores. Eight area fire departments helped fight the fire. Also in the same year, the Ralph Townsend Store, South side of the 200 block of W. Main St. caught fire and had six fire departments respond.

Eight fire departments were called to help extinguish a blaze that took seven stores in the 100 block of E. Main St. back in January 2, 1958.

In the year of 1974, the Lowell Police Department started doing vehicle extraction with an electric Hurst Tool. They referred this to Lowell 838. In October of 1984, the fire department took over the vehicle extraction responsibilities.

Keiser's Kitchen was destroyed by fire in 1988, which at the time was located on the North East corner of W. Main St. and Amity.

Our current fire department location, the Look Memorial Fire Station was built/moved into in 1990. It's address is 315 S. Hudson.