In this 1949 photograph, volunteer firefighters (from left) Virgil Campbell, Henry Clarke and Jerry Renn display a new resuscitator, with the 1937 Diamond T fire truck in the background.

Saratoga Stereopticon

Volunteer firefighters formed community core

BY WILLYS PECK

There was a tow truck and alongside, likely as not, a smashed car recently brought in. There were other cars, some in various stages of disassembly awaiting repair; a grease pit and a row of gasoline pumps out in front. And, poised near the wide door next to a large, single-pane window, were the two Saratoga fire engines.

This was the Saratoga Garage in the days of the all-volunteer fire department, the same 1920-vintage building that houses the professional firefighters and their state-of-the-art equipment today. While changes have been made to adapt the building to its present level of use, the structural inadequacies are becoming increasingly apparent, according to fire district commissioners and department personnel. One thing the building does have, though, is an ideally central location at the convergence of the main thoroughfares into the Village.

That's why plans for a new fire station call for the structure, the subject of a bond election later this year, to be on the same site.

While there is a certain metropolitan aspect to the proposed building and the present staffing and equipment, the department has never lost the home-town feeling described in a previous Stereopticon column. Throughout the country, volunteer fire departments have always been a focal point of community life, extending beyond the concept of neighbors helping neighbors in a time of emergency. In Saratoga, there were the "social" firemen and the active volunteers who responded to alarms. They, along with other townspeople, would all get together for functions like the annual Firemen's Ball, or the Firemen's Whist Party, or the Firemen's Barbecue.

According to Fire Chief Ernest O. Kraule, that social element survives in the monthly potluck dinners held by former volunteers and their spouses.

Even today, the department depends on volunteers. There are 25 who can be summoned by pagers--no more sirens or air horns--to assist the six paid firefighters who are on duty at any one time. Among those six is one paramedic and, as Kraule proudly explains, each of the department's three Class A pumper trucks is equipped with emergency equipment ranging from the "jaws of life" for extricating people from wrecks, to defibrillators for heart patients, to a supply of pharmaceutic drugs. Eighty percent of the calls to the department are for medical emergencies, said Kraule.

Professionalism is a key factor in the Saratoga department, with the 18 paid firefighters holding associate in arts degrees in fire science from Mission College and 15 of the volunteers in school, said Kraule. But, degrees or not, the training process is constant and ongoing, he said.

All they need now is a new firehouse.

Photo: Former Japanese Prime Minister Mohiro Hosokawa

Joe Trio appears at Prentiss Brown Auditorium

Sports Briefs

Warriors win two baseball games in a row

Falcons win three tennis matches