The Ridley Park Fire Company started out with very few resources and little training, but the people of Ridley Park were determined to create an organized source of fire protection for their town. There was not much variation in equipment and the fire service, in general, did not have much advancement in technology. The Ridley Park Fire Company has progressed greatly over time making it safer for firefighters to perform their duties.

The company was organized by Richard S. Pomeroy on September 13, 1890. A group men met at Charles Deakyne’s store at 15 East Hinkley Ave. (now Langguth’s Gift Shop) to organize a fire company. Pomeroy’s frame house had burnt down a short time before. It was to be named Hope Hose Company -1 of Ridley Park. On September 22nd a committee was appointed to purchase a hose carriage, the town’s first piece of firefighting equipment. In March of 1891 the hose carriage was delivered to the fire company. Since the town did not have a fire station, the firefighting equipment was kept in Richard Pomeroy’s carriage house at 312 Swarthmore Ave. That same month plans were developed to build a frame firehouse, 25 X 45 feet with Council chambers on the second floor. The firehouse was to be built by Charles J. Urban for $1,325.00 at the corner of Tome and Darby(Ward) streets. In the beginning, the firefighters in the town would be called to duty by the ringing of the School and Episcopal Church bells. The fire company moved into their new firehouse in October 1891. A fund drive that began in September of that year gained the fire company enough money to purchase their own bell. It was purchased for $81.80 and was mounted on a tree stump in front of the new fire station. In December the name of the fire company was changed from Hope Hose to Ridley Park Fire Company No.-1. To improve the efficiency of the fire company the town’s first hook and ladder was purchased from Rumsey and Company of Seneca, New York, for $410. The firefighters in those days provided their own firefighting gear. This consisted of a Canvas coat with rubber lining, a helmet, and a pair of hip boots. The helmets were usually made of leather, tin or a combination of the two. All this equipment provided very little protection against any of the hazards produced in a fire.

On March 26, 1896, the Ridley Park Firehouse burned down to the ground. The equipment that was not lost was stored temporarily in the carriage shed attached to the Baptist Church until a new firehouse could be built.

The new firehouse was built at the corner of Ward and Cresswell Streets and it was dedicated on October 22, 1896. It still stands today as borough hall and the police station.

"Ridley Park never was a scene of greater animation, was never attended by a bigger crowd of stalwart, brave hearted men, than last evening,on the occasion of the formal housing of the apparatus of Ridley Park Fire Company No.-1 in the beautiful and commodious quarters recently erected and provided in the new Borough Hall."
-Chester Times, Friday, October 23, 1896

This was the formal housing of apparatus at the fire station. Apart from the apparatus being new, the town was also celebrating the new firehouse. The apparatus housing is done in a formal fashion still practiced today. The apparatus is backed into quarters three times: the first for God, the second for country, and the third for community. Ridley Park Fire Company had the latest state of the art apparatus of that day. The hook and ladder was one of few in existence. The hook and ladder was a truck equipped with various tools, long wooden poles with hooks on the end, and an assortment of ground ladders, large and small. The hose cart had a large wheel where hose was rolled, a small wooden box that held adapters, and nozzles made of brass or steel. The nozzles were long funnel-like attachments with no shut off valve. These nozzles are known to firefighters today as suicide nozzles, because there was no way of shutting them down in the event of an emergency. All this equipment was pulled by hand.

The Ridley Park Fire Company No.-1 was chartered on April 18,1901. At the time the company had a total of thirty men. After the signing of the charter the fire company was designated company number seven, meaning that Ridley Park was the seventh company to sign the charter. This number was later used for communications among companies. In 1909 times were hard, especially for finding volunteers. During the daytime and even at night there were very few volunteers around.

"During the day, fires were especially bad because there were few men in town. I remember when I was 12, in 1909, they called for volunteers from Tome Street School, and I went. About twelve men would pull from ropes tied to the yoke and one man would ride to brake. A good brakeman was always important, the wagon could run you over on a steep hill if he didn’t know his job."
-Earl Deppich, September, 1985. Interview by Keith Lockhart.

The fire company did not acquire any kind of breathing apparatus until after World War II. These were called chemox masks. They were similar to gas masks used in the War. A chemox mask was just a mask that hung down on your chest with a cartridge inside it. This was not particularly designed for firefighting because all the cartridge in the mask did was clean the air. It did not give the wearer any supply of fresh air. In a dense smoky environment, this mask would do very little at protecting the firefighter. Even though the chemox masks did not do much for the firefighter, it was still was a step towards better protection. Before the chemox masks were introduced into the fire service, there was nothing to prevent firefighters from breathing in smoke and hazardous gases. When you were done with the cartridges, a pickhead axe was used to knock the chemicals out of the mask. Then the cartridges were washed with water and reused. As a result many firefighters died of cancer or other lung infections as a result of inhaling those hazardous gases. Ridley Park was one of the first companies to acquire these masks.

Ridley Park Fire Company was always one of the first to advance in technology that made things safer for the firefighters. They began to use fire resistant turnout gear that cut down on firefighter injuries. More training and schooling were stressed for firefighters before they were even allowed to enter a burning structure. The development of air packs or Self Contained Breathing Apparatus revolutionized the fire service. Firefighters now were not putting themselves at unnecessary risks, exposing their lungs to hazardous chemicals. Ridley Park was one of the first to acquire these. The air packs were worn on the back and had a steel bottle containing fresh air for the firefighter to breathe through a regulator when he was in a hazardous environment. Today most of the bottles are made of fiberglass,aluminum, or other composite materials.

The Ridley Park Fire Company has only had one member die in the line of duty in its one-hundred plus year history. Chief Engineer Charles Joseph Elder died Sunday, December 30, 1984. He suffered a massive stroke while restoring equipment from the blaze at Myrtle Ave. and Chester Pike. Doctors attributed the stroke to the stress of the late night alarm. The company was devastated by Mr. Elder’s death.

"It was a shock. It hit us all hard."
(Interview with John Cotter, Tuesday, March 25, 1997)

Today the fire company has progressed significantly by providing state of the art protection and equipment to keep us safe while performing our duties. Additionally, we have county schools established to provide firefighters with the adequate training they need, to prevent harming themselves or others. There are also many guidelines outlined by OSHA(Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and by the NFPA(National Fire Protection Agency). These guidelines keep fire companies in the United States trained and knowledgeable of the standards necessary to keep firefighters safe from injury or death. Ridley Park Fire Company has surpassed all those standards and keeps on moving into the future.