In 1872 the first record book of the Fire Department, called the Frontier Fire Company, was started.
The first secretary to be elected was E.B. Jewett in 1874 when the first company was reorganized and was also called the Frontier Fire Company.
In 1883, the Frontier Fire Company was disbanded and reorganized as the Deluge Fire Company and C.F. Horner was appointed secretary.
During the early years of the paid fire department, the Fire Chief and his assistant took care of the administrative duties. As the department grew in numbers and responsibility of a growing city, the administrative duties became such that in 1919, Mr. Bert Furnas was assigned the duties of Secretary. In 1927, Mr. Bert Furnas left the service of the department, and Mr. A.J. Neil, a college professor, was appointed Secretary.
By 1931, Fire Station No. 1 was completed at 3rd and Water and Mr. Neil needed help with the administrative work. Lieutenant C.J. (Pat) Bausch, who was appointed on the fire department March 1, 1925 as a fireman and started driving the apparatus in September of 1925, was assigned to help with the office work as well as ride the fire trucks on alarms. In 1934, Mr. Neil died and "Pat" Bausch continued his "double duty" with the office work and firefighting until 1941, when he was assigned as the executive officer for the department.
Mrs. Edna Melton was appointed in 1943 as an auxiliary secretary and was the first woman to work for the department. Her position was the first permanent help the department secretary had.
Additional growth of the department required appointing a typist clerk in 1958. By this time, the Administration Division had expanded to include a Vehicle Maintenance Shop, a Building Maintenance Shop and the Fire Alarm Office, all under the supervision of the Assistant Chief.
In 1961, the department was partially reorganized under the direction of Fire Chief T.A. McGaughey, and the position of Lieutenant of Records was established as an assistant to the secretary (reclassified to Captain of Records). Firefighter Floyd A. Crawford was appointed Fire Lieutenant on July 1, 1961 and assigned to the new position. The position of Assistant Chief of Administration was established January 1, 1962 and Drill Master Homer E. Hall was promoted to Assistant Chief and assigned to the new position.
May 16, 1965, the Assistant Fire Chief of Operations and Assistant Fire Chief of Administration positions were reclassified as Deputy Fire Chief of Operations and Deputy Fire Chief of Administration.
On January 3, 1966, Captain C.J. "Pat" Bausch retired from the department having served 40 years and 10 months faithfully and without a single blemish on his record. Lieutenant Crawford was appointed Captain of Records and firefighter E.D. Ingle was appointed Lieutenant of Records.
In 1966, a completely new communication system for the Fire Department was installed. With this new system, all of the administrative calls to the Fire Department came through the Administrative office and transferred to the fire station or office by the switchboard operator during business hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) After business hours, this equipment was set up for night service and all calls were then received by the dispatching office. This system removed a tremendous communication load from the dispatching office during business hours.
In 1967, the Gamewell system of box alarm equipment on the streets was replaced by the Emergency Reporting Pedestals. These reporting boxes are telephones hooked direct to the dispatcher's board providing voice contact with the person using the box.
In 1971, the initial meetings for the Electronic Data Processing for fire statistics was held at Fire Station No. 1. This was a major change for reporting fire statistics and Wichita was chosen for the project by a federally funded program called Technology Application Program (TAP) due to the outstanding fire reporting and records of the Wichita Fire Department.
In 1974, Fire Station No. 1 at Third and Water Streets was razed and the Administrative offices were moved to the newly completed Fire Station No. 1 at 731 North Main Street.
In November, 1975, the Administration office was again moved. This time the move was to the new City Building complex - 12th floor. Also moving to City Hall was the Fire Prevention Division previously housed at 436 South Emporia. For the first time in Fire Department history, the Fire Chief's office was not housed in the Fire Department.
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Administration |
R.E. Lieurance
Deputy Chief |