Cambria Volunteer Fire Company History
1st Fire Hall
Origin of Cambria Volunteer Fire Co. by Mervin Brick

     In 1943 a great need was felt for the fire protection in the Town of Cambria. Many discussions took place at the local tavern. On Election Night of that year, the tavern owner's wife laid down one hundred dollars and said "Match this and we will start a fire company." It was matched. The Cambria Town Board gave their approval on January 3, 1944. On February 7, 1944 the Cambria Volunteer Fire Company adopted a Constitution and By-Laws and elected their first officers, who were:

  • President
    Horace Manning
     
  • Vice President
    Clarence Reiger
     
  • Secretary
    Walter Blackman Jr.
     
  • Treasurer
    Clifford Averell
     
  • Fire Chief
    Glenn Brick
     
  • Assistant Chief
    Harold Gotts
     
  • Lieutenant
    John Raskopf
     
  • Sergeant at Arms
    Chester Robinson
     
  • Stewart
    Glenn Sherer
     
  • Director (1 yr)
    David Meahl
     
  • Director (2 yrs)
    Walter Blackman Sr.
     
  • Director (3 yrs)
    Curt Thrall
     
Glenn Brick - First Fire Chief
Glenn Brick - First Fire Chief

     We received a Certificate of Incorporation in Niagara County on January 20th and as such it was filed with the Department of State of the State of New York on February 10, 1944 with the above listed officers.

Fire Truck No. 1

     Our first major project was to build a fire hall. In the spring of 1944, ground was broken and construction of a cement block building to house two fire trucks was started. It was located on Lower Mountain Road next to our Town Hall at the foot of Cambria Road.

     Our first major fire was on March 8th at Jefford's bard on Cambria Wilson Road. Our next one was on the day after our field day in July when tents packed on a truck at Dave Meahl's farm caught on fire.

     In this short time we learned the purpose of our organization, to prevent and extinguish fires.


Download Our Complete History

We have available for download a more thorough and complete history package that was developed to celebrate our 25th anniversary (yes, that was a long time ago). This document contains pictures of most of our past Fire Chiefs and Presidents as well as further information about the history and development of the company such as events and the Ladies Auxilary. There are 36 pages in all and the file is rather large - be forewarned, it may take a while to fully download. Lastly, in order to view the package, you must have Adobe Reader installed.


Download our history package now. (8.5MB)