The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) Larry LaRue column
By Larry LaRue, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"What happened was, they formed a fire district, then a district commission, and bought a used fire truck -- a 1946 Ford 800," Schnider said. "I had a service station in
"So once the fire truck was rebuilt, they parked it in front of the service station because I was the only one who could drive it."
The district then purchased an old church, which stood where
"The floor wouldn't hold the truck, so we tore it out and filled it in with gravel," Schnider said.
Now 89, Schnider lives in neighboring
"There were some businessmen who said the fire truck was more or less a big toy for boys, and that didn't help recruiting," Schnider said. "Well, we got our 25 volunteers signed up.
"A few of them were alcoholics, guys who weren't really capable, but we got our 25."
Trained by firefighters from
"If there was a fire, someone would call us, because we lived across the street from the station," Schnider said. "I'd run across to get the truck ready, and Dorothy would work the telephone and start calling other volunteers."
And then, there was the equipment.
The fire truck had a 500-gallon tank, which Schnider learned to fill by siphoning water from a creek.
"We'd pull up to a fire and we had two hoses," Schnider said. "If 500 gallons didn't put it out, we had to watch it burn. There were no fire hydrants in
The force had no boots, only a few fire jackets and helmets. When they got to a fire, they'd put those on as needed. Otherwise, they hung from the truck.
Dorothy and other wives formed a club --the Sparkettes --and organized fundraisers to buy more equipment.
"If they were fighting a fire, we'd show up with coffee and sandwiches," she said.
Schnider was born in
What the couple found in
"In 1957, we had a measure on the ballot to make
When the measure passed, it wasn't a landslide.
"It won by seven votes," Dorothy said.
"I was the youngest guy on the council, and I listened to my elders," he said. "I was on the council 11 or 12 years, and I was the 'water guy.'"
The city needed one. Water was scarce and often unpleasant, and
"The water in the high school showers was pretty ugly, and the
With Schnider and the rest of the council negotiating, new lines were laid from the north part of town, and
In 1968, the Schniders sold their ownership in the fuel oil business and moved to
Schnider was elected to the
The couple moved again to
And what about neighboring
And the
When Schnider talks about
"I'm the only one left from that original volunteer fire department," he said, "and the only one left from that first
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