Diagonal Fire Department
All of the first buildings in
Diagonal were mostly wood. Therefore,
many were lost to fire. Some of the
up-and-coming dads of the town fought hard for some kind of fire-fighting
equipment. On August 13, 1903, the town
council, at a special meeting, purchased from the Chicago Fire Company a
50-gallon chemical fire engine. These
engines, with a few cisterns to supply water, well equipped the town to fight
fire.
The chemicals and fire hose were
dragged to the fire by anyone who got them first, until October 1926, when the
fire company made a cart to keep the hoses on . With much discussion and the fear of greater
taxes, the topic of a fire department was discussed. Finally, in November 1926, the fire company was organized with Alva Rake as fire chief. This protection would lower the insurance of
buildings by at least ten per cent.
In 1948, there was some discussion
of buying a fire truck to use for country protection, but again the scare of
taxes prevented it.
In August 1952, the town of
In 1971, due to the bad condition of
the old fire house north of Schlapia, Inc., it was
agreed to work together with the local Lions’ Club and build one building to
serve as a community building and fire station.
The same year, a 1963 panel truck was purchased
and in 1976, an Army surplus Jeep was added.
In 1978, they sold the 1947 truck and purchased a used 1960 Dodge fire
truck. Later, a 1981 GMC, four-wheel
drive, one-ton chassis was purchased and the fire
department designed a truck according to their own needs, coming up with a very
useful truck. We now have a very
dependable fire department.