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Warren Engine Company, 92 YearsOld, Is More Efficient Than Ever92 Ylof sltuatiSelf - Supporting/%kl TLJC IAD at all hours of the day or night are members of Warren Engine Company* vm I il L JwD Here (left to right) Stan Peyton, Don Amodet and Walt Drew take a Hose line forward during a bad fire some months ago. (Photo by John Doherty)Fire DepartmentHas Made HistoryCorson City Pooplo Ars Justifiably Proud of ItBy JOHN DOHERTYWhen the foghorn fire atarm blast of Carson City’s Warren Engine Co. startles everybody in Eagle Valley, the members of that nationally known volunteer fire fighting organization don't know whether they wall be gone for an hour or a week. They also don't know whether they are be* ing called to some location inside the Carson City limits, or to a place 0 miles away from townThat is because the organisation is one of the few in existence not limited to any particular area In fighting blazes. That, In turn, is because the members of the company are the owners of the fire engines and all the equipment, and can take them where they please. Neither ('arson City. Ormsby County nor the State of Nevada has any stiings attached to Warren Engine Co.Organized In 1663Organized m 1863. one year before the state of Nevada came Into being. Warren Engine Co. No. 1 and its rival organization, Curry Engine Co.. filled early record books with much history in the frantic endeavor to outdo each other in putting out the fires which threatened early day Carson City loog before it became Nevada’s capital city.Pictures of the old time members shll hang on the vail of the Warren’h new engine house lie-hind the court hr use in (‘arson*cent cars was the Lakeview fire m 195J, which started in the afternoon r.oar the VT railroad track on the hill behind Eagle Valley Children’s Home. The spot fue was extinguished by the Warrens and (hoy returned to the station. Severn I hours later it jumped out anew and with a brisk wind pushing it through the hicrh: sagebrush, jumped the highwayFOREST FIRESand range fires are all in the day’s work to W; members. Here they prepare to lay a line iron' Bowers Mansion to help check the serious blaze which threatened the old buil- - -V ' »and headed up the mountain to-City and a few' pieces of the an-1 ward -McClellan Feak. Firemen tique equipment remain. They are, were called out at 8 that Saturdayfill that is left as mementos of the tremendous battles against fire made by those oarlv day smoko raters but the spirit of the earl* volunteers still pervades the atmosphmr at mind the hoult;e whenever the w s i n i n g tydl sounds.Long-DUtance Outfit Warren Engine Co. No 1 is becoming known as a “long-dis-evening and the last truck returned to the lirehouse the next morning at 10.Gold Hill Fir*Veteian volunteers on the company leeall that the 1942 blaze thar started m Gold Ihtl, jumped up rhrough the Divide and into Virginia City, taking over 50 houses in Ux path. It was perhaps the most spectacular they ever encountered. Wind blew sotance fire department becausenr iN many Iript In brining pm- ha.d that u-amr from the* hosesfeet arj aiea of near Iy 2.500 squaremilesWhile other departments cover local area* in some of this territory the Warren’s never fail to send a (ruck to aid or stand hy when an alarm rails out equipment in Virginia City. Dayton, Lake Tahoe and many other locations.Most widely used piceo of equipment m the department is the new 750-gallon tank-pumpcr recent 1 donated to the company by the State of Nevada in return for its 90 years of protecting state property m and around the capital. This track has ranged far and wide since its debut some four years ago. having been called to Fern ley, 52 miles to the east. Zephyr Cove at Lake Tahoe. Woodfords. across the line irt California to the south and to the Reno Hot Springs area during the brush fir': in that area several \oars ago.Naturally, when a fire truck has a ran of 25 to 30 miles before It roaches the scene of a call, the flames have a pretty good startwas blown hack at the liremcn. drenching and chilling Ihem that cold November night.Week In King's CanyonBut the disastrous King’s Cannon fire in 1926 will go down as the most terr.fic ordeal in the depai tmenfs history. The company was on duly for a full week in iHat brush and forest blaze which took the lives of live fire fighters before being overcome.Officers of the company estimate that more than 40 per cent of the calls answered are from outside the city, and most of those are also outside the limits Of Ormsby county,i Warren Knginemon have only one object: To get to a fire and put it out with the least amount of damage possible.To accomplish this object the department has built through then* years by donations, benelits and gifts until it now owns five good usable fire engines and all thenecessary equipment for fightingifiro of any kind and saving lives.While ihe city of Carson and Ormsby county furnish three housemen for the department andcn the firemen, so it is not unu*-jpar|Jr|p,^r (n of keepingual when all the company can do Is to “save the lot “To the Break-n-lleartTwo calls in the past (wo years have taken the truck and several carloads of firemen to the Break-n-Heart Ranch on the Carson River some 23 miles east of Carson On both occasions ttie department arrived after flames had consumed the budding where fire originated, hut they were in time to save surrounding structure?.First disastrous blaze at that location was the ranch house occupied by Earl Lane, at that time owner of the spread, two ears ago. and aeeompanving picturesthe engines 1 oh ing, the department is not a pohiical -division of either and is corr.pleloh under the control of its members as to what policies are followedMembership LimitedMemliership in ihe 92-} ear-old comp.iny is limned to 25 actives. A member ma qualify for the exempt list after 20 vears' continuous service, and is then relieved of the necessity of answering on cry call. Missing three meetings or tire calls without a good excuse, v ill result in a member being droppedMeetings, are hell weekly and at least one meeting a month isEmergency Messages Held Here for TwoPolice are holding two emergency message* for persons whophases of the company's operation for the next year, when an election by members will determinewho will guide them for anothervcarare bchcved to be in the Reno, area.One message is held for Mrs. Emma Sheets or Mrs. Nellie McGee The other is held for Mrs. V)oye Bennett.As the messages are of an extremely urgent nature, the recipients are requested to contact police headquarters immediately at 3-4141.show what the fighters were con- devotedcntirely tn training, some-fronted with as they arrived at the ranch. Last month the company again was called to that location when a barn hurst into flames and again were able to save Rurrmmdinp' hmldincrctime two and three training pro grams are held each month.New Chief On Kndjv night the Warrens met for their annual banquet and installation of officers. StateFOR YOUR CONVENIENCEOUR NEW PHONE NUMBER IS2-4000
Newspaper Details
Reno Evening Gazette
Reno, Nevada, US
Sun, Jun 19, 1955
Page 47
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
NV, USA 16 Aug 2019
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