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A look at the
history of The Newport Township
Volunteer Fire Department
(The Long Version)
“On September 7, 1945,
a group of interested persons met in Rosecrans to organize the Newport
Township Volunteer Fire Department. The members each contributed 50
cents in a fund for the Treasurer.” This was the first entry made
in the first book of records kept by a group of people who started an
institution that would continue to grow to meet the needs of a community
for over 55 years.
Thirty-five men attended that meeting and on
September 25 another sixteen men joined. During the course of the next
year the people supporting the cause totaled more than seventy-five.
These individuals attended planning meetings and paid dues of fifty
cents to belong to the organization of the new fire district. The first
order of business was raising funds, and everyone chipped in to help.
Card parties were held across the township and the residents came out in
droves to support the formation of a fire department. The card parties,
which were held at local one-room schoolhouses, raised hundreds of
dollars. Every meeting brought more men to contribute their fifty cents.
Other fund raising events were sponsored; the first advertising poster
and raffle were started that first year at the first dance. The dance
was a great success as it netted over $1,200.00 for the department. A
charter was applied for and granted to the Newport Township Volunteer
Fire Department by the State of Illinois.
The first fire chief was
Leroy Fritz, and he held that post for twenty years until he resigned in
early 1966. His line of officers were Assistant Chiefs: Les Shields and
Art Rice, Chief Engineer: Claude (Cotton) Rice. Ernie Leable served as
treasurer and secretary. The fire department was guided by three
trustees: Les Shields, who served as a member and trustee for twenty
years until the time of his death, Frank Faulkner and George Voss.
County Judge Persons, who resided in Newport Township, appointed the
trustees at that time. With $614.60 in the treasury the membership
decided to purchase a siren for $125.00 to alert members, and land for
the purpose of erecting a fire station. After considerable discussions
over where the new station would be, Rosecrans or Wadsworth, it was
determined that more daytime help would be available in Wadsworth. On
May 28, 1946, a sum of $100.00 was paid to the estate of John Lux for
the down payment of Lot # 3 in Lux subdivision, the present location.
The site was once the Old Woodman Hall, a local dance hall that
hosted dances that would draw revelers from other communities as well as
the local residents. Card parties and other social functions in the
community were also held at the hall until it ironically succumbed to a
fire.
On July 15, 1946, a final $200.00 was paid to
Mr. Lux and a title granted to the Newport Township Volunteer Fire
Department. By January of 1947 local men started buying bags of cement
and sand, a little at a time, to start making the block for the new
building. The cement blocks were made by hand in the evenings and on
weekends. Thus began months of hours put in by the men from the township
volunteering their time to build the new two bay station.
In their spare time these
same men continued to canvass the township for donations. Members
remember receiving large and small donations, it seemed that everyone
contributed something, and they were rarely turned away at the door even
at the modest of homes. Social functions continued to be held year
round, whatever the event, card party, bake sale, dances or raffles, the
residents always came out to show their support.
1947 also saw the purchase
of the first fire truck, purchased from the W.S. Darley Co. for
$4,422.63, for which Mr. Bill Doyle loaned the funds to the department,
and the installation of five phones in key members’ houses to alert them
of a call.
The member’s wives, who
were dubbed the “call girls”, would receive the emergency call on the
fire line and would have to call all of the members at home to get them
to respond to the call. The first call girls were Grace Shields, Marion
Schlosser, Cathy Butwil, Carolyn Bennett and Loraine Dams. The ladies
could not even leave their home until they were sure someone else would
be able to answer the fire phone. This practice continued until 1972
when the department purchased 23 plectron radios, radios that were
automatically toned out by Gurnee Dispatch. The fire department honored
the “call girls” with a dinner for their years of service. Before the
plectrons Les or Grace Shields would run over to the station to sound
the siren and members responded from that alert. One wail indicated an
inhalator or rescue call and several wails meant that the emergency was
a fire call. Also in 1947, the Gurnee Fire Department gave Newport a
1942 Chevy fire truck and this brought the fleet to two. This vehicle
was later destroyed in the only fatal accident in the history of the
department. The incident, which killed fireman George Kull and seriously
injured Henry Becker, occurred while the department was responding to a
call. By the end of 1947 the department was in full service providing
fire protection to the residents of Newport Township existing solely on
donations. The first tax moneys were not received until January 1948.
In 1949 Newport boasted
the largest tanker in Lake County when township resident Gene Shea, with
the engineering assistance of Henry Becker, built an eleven hundred
gallon tanker out of a 1949 Ford F700 cab and chassis purchased by the
department. The new tanker was called “Big Red” and was used by the
department until Tempel Smith purchased it from the association in 1973.
It can still be seen in the township today.
“Big Red”
Due to the nature of the rural environment of
Newport Township, grass fires were prevalent, most of the time finding
access to these fires was quite a task and with this in mind a new 1955
Jeep brush truck was purchased. The Jeep truck was bought from Harris
Motors in Winthrop Harbor and converted to a fire truck by the Grayslake
Fire Truck Company. The truck is retired from service now but is still
used for parades.
 
1955 Jeep Willies
By 1960 the aging of the current fleet made it
necessary to obtain a new engine. Bought for $9,755.00 from Pedersen GMC
in Antioch, the conversion of the truck was completed by the Peter
Pirsch Company for $5,166.00. In 1968 a Dodge brush truck was added to
the fleet, which remains in service today. It’s four-wheel drive
abilities were tested annually in the forest preserve behind the
firehouse at the firemen’s family picnic, much to the delight of all the
children. In 1970 a Ward LaFrance 1,000 gallon pumper was purchased
fulfilling the need for larger pumping capacity and to relieve the
ten-year-old first run engine.
 
1960 GMC Pumper 1968 Dodge
Power Wagon
Attendance at local parades was considered good
public relations and kept the firemen busy waxing the trucks. Personnel
were also expected to be present for tours of the firehouse for local
groups as well as hosting fire drills at the local schools. Christmas
parties were held annually for the children of the township. The holiday
affair was held at the station, movies were shown and the kids were
treated to bags of candy. It was an event anxiously looked forward to by
all the local children, some who have returned to the station to serve
as firefighters today. After hosting the annual party for many years, in
1974 the department decided to bring Santa on the road with them as they
stopped at the children’s homes passing out candy and Christmas cheer.
The first Santa was Gil Hawk, who faithfully dyed his beard white every
year to fulfill his role. Today the practice continues, only now it
takes five Santa’s to reach all of the children in one day.
The station itself
required a lot of maintenance and the department relied heavily on the
plumbers, electricians, painters, etc. who were also members In the
early years it was even the Chief Engineers job to maintain building
heat as well as maintenance on all vehicles. In 1953 a need for a
meeting room became apparent and a basement was added to the original
structure. Fred Cashmore served as contractor for the addition; his
contract was for $3,497.79. In 1966 after lengthy debates and a year of
committee meetings, bids were received for another addition to the
building. It consisted of adding a long double entry truck bay and a
meeting room above the basement area. Leable & Huff were the contractors
for this addition. The purchase of an additional lot was necessary to
accommodate the addition and it was acquired from Mr. Leonard Beasinger.
The fire department continued to grow with the township in providing
quality fire protection and rescue service and in 1984 the latest
addition was added bringing the station to the present nine bay
structure that includes a hose tower. The new addition not only provided
adequate space to store the department’s fleet, properly store equipment
and tools, but also allowed the department to start holding its own
dances once again to raise funds for the department.
During the early years of the department, first
aid was the only training available to the firefighters. Members of
neighboring departments taught classes and some of the firemen learned
first-aid procedures while serving in the armed forces prior to becoming
firemen. Later on, the American Red Cross offered advanced first aid
training. The fire department had no vehicle for transporting patients
and would have to respond to the scene with a fire truck and take care
of the patients as well as they could until an ambulance could be called
from neighboring funeral homes, private ambulance services or the other
fire departments or rescue squads. In the early 1970’s some of the
members went out on their own and trained with other departments and
ambulance services to become certified with the Illinois Department of
Public Health as E.M.T.’s (Emergency Medical Technicians) and
Paramedics. Finding the need to extricate people from automobiles who
were trapped in wreckage prior to the arrival of the ambulance, the
department purchased a porta power set like the body shops used at the
time. These along with various pry bars and chisels were used until the
purchase of the Hurst Tool (Jaws of Life). The department continued
utilizing other ambulances until the summer of 1976 when the ambulance
was purchased from the Antioch Rescue Squad.
First Ambulance
1977 saw the delivery of a squad truck that was
purchased with donated money. Because neither of these vehicles was air-conditioned and
more interior room was needed, another used ambulance was purchased from
the town of Mukguonago, Wisconsin in 1984. Seeing the need for more
advanced medical treatment and working with the Victory Hospital
Paramedic System and E.M.T. Intermediate program was started. This
program brought another level of training between E.M.T. and Paramedics.
The first individuals trained were Rick Neal, John Nudo, and Fred Gaca.
Newport became the first certified Intermediate life support unit in
Lake County. In April 1983. After continuing to function as an
intermediate life support unit for several years, it became apparent
that the only way to satisfy the requirements for the I.D.P.H. to become
a Medical Intensive Care Unit (Advanced Life Support Unit) was to
hire a Paramedic to be on duty in the station during daytime hours, when
manpower was always a problem. Prior to hiring full time people several
things were attempted to alleviate the daytime manpower problem,
including changing the bylaws to include men working in the township
without having to live in the township, include women, allow for people
to join as firefighters or rescue personnel or both, and changing the
boundaries to include a parameter outside of Newport Township. These
changes brought about the acceptance of the first female members, Ann
Campanella, who became a paramedic and Therese Stubbs who became an EMT.
As the nature of the services provided continued to advanced so did the
liability risk for the members of the corporation who owned the fire
department. On August 10, 1993 it was decided to dissolve the
corporation and become a municipal department.
Presently the single station is staffed 24 hours
each day with two State Certified firefighter/EMT Paramedics. We house
state of the art equipment, provide the highest level of care, and
provide mutual aid assistance to those surrounding departments that
helped us for so many years.
No history of the Newport
Volunteer Fire Department would be complete without mentioning the wives
and families of the members. From baking for the bake sales, serving
brats at the picnics, quizzing for exams to holding dinner or canceling
a night out because of a call, you have our deepest thanks. For the kids
who sat waiting at the station while dad was at a call and all those
holidays and birthdays that took dad away to the grassfire or car
accident, your sacrifice has not been forgotten.
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