My F.D. had it's Centennial back in 1997. Since then I've been to several Centennial celebrations for surrounding F.D's. I was surprised to find out that some area F.D's are only 50 years old or so, some are even younger! Just curious how old everyone else's F.D's are. I'm sure there's some Departments on the east coast that are getting close to their Bi-centennial.
My Central FL Department is one of the 'New Kids' on the block having been formed in the '70s. Prior to that, there were mostly small VFDs and some areas with no coverage at all.
My dept is only 37 years young , established in 1973 , i was told the first year or so the founding members paid for all the equipment and bills out of their own pockets ,before getting a contract and budget from the town .
Our history dates back to the late 1800's. Farmers had formed an organization to help their neighbors back in 1894-1896. If you take a look at some of the History on our web site "Up in Ashes" was the distruction of a small agricultural area. www.edwardsfd.com