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MFD celebrates 100 years...a retrospect

Above, the building shown is a file photo of the third firehouse built in 1917. Shown belowis the rear view of the Mas­sapequa Water District using a part of the 1917 building and saving a bit of local history.

Sometime in the fall of 1909, William J. Hoffmann and Christian W. Went­zler called a meet­ing with a hand­ful of their friends at Pennell's Hotel, which was located on the east side of Hicksville Road, south of where Sunrise Highway is today. Thepur­pose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of orga­nizing a volunteer fire department in Massapequa. Theidea received the positive support of about seven or eight other local men.

Shortly following that initial meeting, weekly meetings were held in the hotel. Eight or 10 meet­ings later, the men decided to informally start a firedepartment and it was to be called the Massapequa Fire Department.

Although there were very few records rescued from a fire in the home of the secretary, the date 1910 is the date on filefrom the early years of the de­partment. While I attended several meetings plan­ning the Department's 75th anniversary, some older members there had some answers to important his­tory.

It was believed that the first officers consisted of a foreman, assistant foreman, secretary, treasurer and three trustees. During the mid-1920s my father, John Hugo Meyer, served as secretary. He always said that he was asked because he had legible hand­writing.

Now there was a need for firefighting apparatus. The men had to come up with ideas on how to pur­chase the fire apparatus needed. Everyone knew that there weren't any funds as of yet in the treasury so 25 cents monthly dues was collected from the mem­bers and after about a year of collecting the dues and some fund-raising parties and fairs, the Department was able to buy an American La France horse-drawn hook and ladder at the cost of about $1,000 that was called a "30 Bucket and Hand Extinguisher" truck. However, the Department didn't own any horses so when a firebroke out, teams were borrowed from nearby farmers from along Hicksville Road.

Headquarters for their new piece of equipment was an extension added to Mr. Avignone's barn that faced Brooklyn Avenue near where an officebuild­ing stands today. The shed was only large enough to house the fire truck and some equipment so the meetings were still held at Pennell's Hotel.

It was brought out during the 75th anniversary planning meeting that a Model T Ford was pur­chased in about 1920 that was used for many years be­fore other trucks were added to the fleet as we know it now in 2009. When the Model T was no longer useable, John's twin brother Henry bought it and got it running and used it on the Mey­er's Hicksville Road farm. I remember as a kid the rusty old fire truck that no longer could run parked in the chick­en pen with chickens perched all over it.

At 1:30 p.m. on the afternoon of April 6, 1917, Mrs. Avignone sounded the alarm by hitting an old steel wheel with a hammer for a fire at their shed that housed the new "Bucket and Hand" truck. Thetruckhouse was completely destroyed and only some of the apparatus was saved. When the firewas finally put out, the discussion by the men was now we have to think about building a firehouse that would be able to house trucks, a meeting room and a space to hold fund-raising events. However the fire-damaged shed had to be replaced to at least store their fireapparatus. A new shed-type building near to the first one was built. It was decided in 1917 that a cement block and wood two-story building could be built on land facing Grand Avenue where the Massapequa Water District is presently located, at a cost of about $7,000. A portion of that building that faces Brooklyn Avenue is still being used by the Water District. Funds for the building were raised by holding fairs and block parties. Thearea that was used by the Department was in the vicinity of the northwest corner of Merrick Road and Ocean Av­enue because Merrick Road was the busiest road in town. Sunrise Highway wasn't even on the drawing boards at that time.

In February of 1910, the Massapequa Fire Department was officially incor­porated. Thefirst officerswere William J. Hoffman who served as chief for fiveyears; Christian W. Wentzler, assistant chief; John Jones, treasurer and How­ard Collins, secretary. During the year 1922, an electric siren was purchased and installed at the Grand Avenue fire­house. Emergency calls would be an­swered in the drug store located at the corner of Grand and Central Avneue and the siren would be turned on from there.

George Pennell, Jr. was the second foreman and served for five years. Thethird foreman was Jacob Weibel and the fourth foreman was Thomas H. Fraser who served in the position from 1923 to 1932. In 1929 the Massapequa Fire District was established and Thomas H. Fraser, William Rohr, Theodore Naar, George Schaeffer and George Gangloff were elected commissioners. Philip A. McGarty was the treasurer.

A short while after the district was formed, plans were made to build a small garage-type building on Merrick Road in East Massapequa to house a truck and equipment on the grounds of where the headquarters of the depart­ment now stands, the corner of East Shore Drive and Merrick Road and was known as the East End House. Dur­ing the year 1940, the fire house on Hicksville Road was built. During the war years of the 1940s, besides the firetrucks, a military ambulance was kept in the house. Trudy Hansen, who lived in Massapequa Park, was the officialdriver. TheMassapequa Park House on Front Street was built much later and on the grounds of the former Wood Castle Hotel and famous German restaurant. TheMassapequa Fire Department has had its ups and downs over their 99 years of service to the Pequas.

Fund-raising had become very diffi­cult. Local friends and neighbors be­came too preoccupied to support the department. Block parties and the fairs failed.

During the year 1947, door-to-door subscription drives became necessary to raise the much-needed funds to help support the department. The subscrip­tion drive is still being used by way of mailed information to all the homes in the district as their source of income. Now in 2009, 99 years have gone by and it is a far cry from the 15 to 20 members and six calls a year, to more than 300 members and about 2,600 calls a year. TheMassapequa Fire Department can roll 21 pieces of equipment for a fireemergency at any time of the day or night. According to Bill Beato, who was the chief at the time of the 75th cel­ebration, a parade of local fire depart­ments and a block party was held. He added that for our 100th birthday we're planning a huge night parade with firedepartments from throughout Long Island and a block party. He promises that this will be a birthday party that will be remembered for many more