BETHESDA: Doc now your barkin up my tree. Marshall you are correct at least as the history books have it. If I'm wrong on anything, sorry this all predates me I'm just goin on what I have dug up.
So it goes back in the late 1930s the Bethesda Fire Board sought to improve the "moral, skill and professionalism" of the all-volunteer Bethesda FD adding a paid chief and some firefighters mostly as drivers. As I have it the dept ran 2 engines, a rescue car and an ambo. The area was at the time seeing a building boom specifically the new Navy Med Center and NIH facility were under construction as were many houses and other real estate ventures.
On July 1 1939, a retired chief of training from the DCFD was hired along with 4 from the volunteer ranks. This so outraged the vollie chief (who reportedly was offered a paid position) that a he and a group of members soon after organized and incorporated the VFD No 1 of Bethesda Maryland. Now two depts were in the old 1926 built firehouse on Old Georgetown Rd where the south side of Woodmont Ave is now. Tensions escalated and some vollies reportedly would not follow the new chief's orders. There was also a story of a whistling boom boom device getting wired up to the spark plugs of new chiefs car while he attempted to depart a local service station whose owners were or had been volunteers. Anyway by October, the VFD No 1 of Bethesda was barred from the station. This left the Bethesda FD short-staffed so a few were hired back on making the Bethesda FD all-career.
On March 18, 1941, the VFD No 1 of Bethesda MD went in service from a member-built two-bay station (as posted by Tillerman 1664), As I have it, this sat on the north side of Fairmont Ave e/o Norfolk Ave in what was/is called the Bethesda Triangle. For apparatusa they reportedly had two engines one a new Hahn plus an older Stutz chemical city service ladder truck. (there may have been a couple of rigs in and outta there) With 2 depts serving the community, competiton arose quickly even over phone numbers. I believe a judge ultimately declared both were to share a party line with both able to respond on calls in the Bethesda District. With the onset of WWII, both depts lost personnel. By 1944, the VFD No 1of Bethesda had few members and was in financial diffculty. It too was under some scrutiny as one of its members was charged and convicted of an arson at B-CC High School where a member of the Chevy Chase FD was struck and killed standing at the pump of one of their engines. The VFD of Bethesda disbanded later in 1944 and as I have it their '41 Hahn went to the Kensington VFD as their Engine No 4. The old station on Fairmont Avenue became the second permanant home of the re-organized B-CC Rescue Squad. They lived there from 1949 until 1956 when they moved west to thier first "new" station on Auburn Ave. All of these buildings have been torn down.
Hope you all enjoyed that.
"Rusty" old Ed Freen
So it goes back in the late 1930s the Bethesda Fire Board sought to improve the "moral, skill and professionalism" of the all-volunteer Bethesda FD adding a paid chief and some firefighters mostly as drivers. As I have it the dept ran 2 engines, a rescue car and an ambo. The area was at the time seeing a building boom specifically the new Navy Med Center and NIH facility were under construction as were many houses and other real estate ventures.
On July 1 1939, a retired chief of training from the DCFD was hired along with 4 from the volunteer ranks. This so outraged the vollie chief (who reportedly was offered a paid position) that a he and a group of members soon after organized and incorporated the VFD No 1 of Bethesda Maryland. Now two depts were in the old 1926 built firehouse on Old Georgetown Rd where the south side of Woodmont Ave is now. Tensions escalated and some vollies reportedly would not follow the new chief's orders. There was also a story of a whistling boom boom device getting wired up to the spark plugs of new chiefs car while he attempted to depart a local service station whose owners were or had been volunteers. Anyway by October, the VFD No 1 of Bethesda was barred from the station. This left the Bethesda FD short-staffed so a few were hired back on making the Bethesda FD all-career.
On March 18, 1941, the VFD No 1 of Bethesda MD went in service from a member-built two-bay station (as posted by Tillerman 1664), As I have it, this sat on the north side of Fairmont Ave e/o Norfolk Ave in what was/is called the Bethesda Triangle. For apparatusa they reportedly had two engines one a new Hahn plus an older Stutz chemical city service ladder truck. (there may have been a couple of rigs in and outta there) With 2 depts serving the community, competiton arose quickly even over phone numbers. I believe a judge ultimately declared both were to share a party line with both able to respond on calls in the Bethesda District. With the onset of WWII, both depts lost personnel. By 1944, the VFD No 1of Bethesda had few members and was in financial diffculty. It too was under some scrutiny as one of its members was charged and convicted of an arson at B-CC High School where a member of the Chevy Chase FD was struck and killed standing at the pump of one of their engines. The VFD of Bethesda disbanded later in 1944 and as I have it their '41 Hahn went to the Kensington VFD as their Engine No 4. The old station on Fairmont Avenue became the second permanant home of the re-organized B-CC Rescue Squad. They lived there from 1949 until 1956 when they moved west to thier first "new" station on Auburn Ave. All of these buildings have been torn down.
Hope you all enjoyed that.
"Rusty" old Ed Freen
Facebook
Google
Reddit
Twitter