Pride of Organization Basis of Fire Company's Success

Standing is left to right: 1) Fire Chief Cary Cummins; 2) Wayne VonEhr Kneeling left to right is: 1) Harold Davis; 2) David Burns; 3) Mont Foss; 4) Ed McFeely; 5) Howard Porcher; 6) Kenneth Bush; 7) Horace Ewald; 8) Arthur Fishburn; 9) Perchis Blanchard; 10) Jack Taylor; 11) Phil McLane; 12) Ed Boberg

The fourteen members of the Culver fire department put themselves on call at any hour of the day or night for no greater reward than the satifaction of giving public service and probably furnishing a certain excitement of the adventurous side of their natures.

The average of around twenty dollars which the firemen receive every year scarcely pays for the damage to their clothes.

The organization of the group allows each member to get his job done at a fire without confusion or overlapping of effort.

The siren alarm is sounded by the telephone operator when she gets the message and she does not answer any other calls until she has told the first man at the station where the fire is located.

The truck is not run out until at least three men are on it, but when once started it does not stop to pick up men.

The first of the four drivers who reaches the station drives to the fire. The drivers are:
Harold Davis
Wayne VonEhr
Horace Ewald and
Arthur Fishburn.

Driving the truck us sometimes hampered by people who, instead of stopping at the side of the road and allowing the firemen to go past, try to cut in ahead or otherwide behave to form a hazard for the dringer of the fire truck.

Thoughtless Motorists

Another difficulty has been caused because some people think the truck should stop and leave hose at the hydrant or water hole instead of first going to the fire and returning to the water supply.

However, it is necessary to go to the fire and leave the nozzle of the hose and other equipment and then unreel the hose completely at the water suply. Otherwise the firemen have to unreel the hose completely at the water supply and drag it all the way to the fire.

After laying the hose, the driver starts the pump in operation and the other drives set the suction hose. Mont Foss knows the operation of the hydrants and stays by the hydrant during the fire.

By the time the hose is connected the nozzle-men have the hose trained on the fire at the direction of the chief. The nozzle-men are Dave Burns, who is head,
Howard Porcher,
Kenneth Bush and
Ed Boberg.

Three ladder-men are
Ed McFeeley,
Perchis Blanchard, and
Jack Taylor.
His long experience makes McFeeley the head.

Cary Cummins is chief and Phil McLane, assistant chief. Their duties in directing the fire-fighting include detemining how to approach the fire, where to get the water and what variations of th routine may be necessary.

Volume of Water

The department is equipped to bring water from 1,200 feet with a lift of 31 feet. Only a foot of depth is required for the pump to function near its capacity of 750 gallons per minute, seven streams of water may be thrown on a fire in the town fast enought to exhaust the city reservoir. The booster tank carries 100 gallons and chemicals are also on hand.

In several parts of Union township water is not available sufficient for fire-fighting, and in those places it is impossible for the fire department to put out a big fire, in many cases a few days labor in damming off a gully would give enough water for the department to save part of a house or barn even though the fire might have gained headway before being discovered.

Insurance rate could be lowered materially by making use of marshes or gullies to give a water supply to the fire fighters.

The local department is noted for its amazingly quick response to alarms.

The quickest recorded time in which the truck was started was one zero night in February when the call sounded about 2 o'clock. A. B. Holt heard the call and three minutes later noted the siren of the truck leaving the station. Ironically enough the "fire" turned out to be smoke from a pair of overhalls in the back seat of a car near Hattens garage, and all that was necessary was to toss the clothing out of the car.

Don't Delay Alarm

Although many people turn in alarms without waiting to find out anything about, how severe the fire is. Fire chief Cummins advices that it is safer to call the department than to try to put out a fire alone and allow it to gain headway. Several severe losses have been the result of not calling the department soon enough.

In the winter when special clothes are worn for fire fighting the firemen stands his boots close to the bed with trousers spread over them and a shirt on top of that. When the alarm sounds he snatches his shirt while stepping into trousers and boots at the same time. A man doesn't have to be wide awake to do this and he may reach the station with remembering not getting out of bed or much about dressing. The slickers and hats belong to the town and are put on at the station.

New members must be between twenty-one and forty years of age and have been a resident of Culver for six months. They are voted on for membership solely on the interst of capibility and interest taking into consideration that men must live close enough to the station to reach it quickly. After fifty-five the men are retired and given an honorary membership but no pension.

An attempt to give $25 per month pension to volunteers retired twenty years of service was defeated in the last legislature. The cost to the taxpayer would be around a tenth of a mill on the dollar.

Hold regular meetings

Meetings are held the second Monday in each month and each member is paid a dollar for attending

Practice is held each Monday during the summer and sessions are devoted to different types of training - ladder work, hydrant testing, etc.

Indiana is divided into six districts and district meetings of firemen are held every six months.

All members of the dempartment belong to the Indiana fireman's Association.

The only social event of the department is the trapshoot held with the permission of the Academy on its gorunds on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The trapshoot ranks as the largest in Northern Indiana.

The officers of the club as elected at the first meeting of the year are: Chief - Cary Cummins
Assistant Chief - Phil McLane<
Secretary - Harold Davis and
Treseaurer - Mont Foss

Mont Foss and Ed McFeely are retiring this year after 28 and 26 years of service respectivel. These two men with Henry Listenberger are some of the long-time members of the department and Mr. Listenberger during his thiry years as a fireman missed only one fire.

There had been but three fires in the past six years with only three members, and there have been only four fires in the last six years with all fourteen firemen present, and three of these have been in the past six months. - Sep 11, 1935