July 9, 2003
Fire department recalls humble homemade roots
Members of the Cherry Center Grange
started Peninsula Township department in 1943 with one truck
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Sixty years ago, with a homemade fire truck and a group of dedicated volunteers, Peninsula Township officially ended the days of fighting fires with a bucket brigade.
Nine township residents founded the county's first volunteer fire department in 1943 by modifying a Chevy truck chassis to include a pump and spray tank. Members of the Cherry Center Grange, the fire department founders, paid for the equipment out of their own pockets and conducted their own training.
The men - Harry Heller, Arnie White, Roy Hooper, Claude Watson, Isadore Lardie, John Lardie, Stan Wood, Ray Heller and Oakley Lardie - were inspired by a devastating home fire remembered as the Cooledge fire. This fire blazed out of control in 1943, as mere buckets of water could not subdue it.
Oakley Lardie is the only surviving member of the original group. He recently recounted in the Peninsula Township Fire and Rescue News the story of the first fire the group fought using the new equipment: a home's chimney fire that the department stopped with their sprayer, even after the cedar shingle roof was involved.
The department was turned over to the township in 1947 and now includes 15 volunteers and two full-time paid staff. Serving a growing and aging population, Peninsula Township Fire and Rescue completed 266 calls last year, including responding to 73 fires and 168 medical calls. The remaining calls were miscellaneous rescues or assists, including one water rescue.
From their homemade beginnings, the squad's firefighters, emergency medical technicians and medical first responder now use the latest in modern fire and rescue equipment methods. They have two engines, three tanker trucks, a rescue truck, two ambulances, wildfire fighting trucks, a rescue boat and a snowmobile and rescue sled. This equipment is distributed among two stations: a satellite station closer to the base of the 22-mile-long peninsula and the main station situated in Mapleton.
But the department harks back to its roots with a homemade portable hydrant truck, built by members of the department to draw water directly from the Grand Traverse Bay. The long, skinny township has more than 60 miles of water frontage and the portable hydrant truck's 1,800 gallon-per-minute pump can quickly refill tankers. Volunteers began experimenting in 1978 and the truck is now based on a one-ton chassis.
"They said it couldn't be done, but we just kept working on it and now other departments are using our design to copy it and build their own," said Richard VanderMey, the full-time chief of the department since 1989. "The last hydrant is at McKinley and Peninsula Drive so this allows us to get water farther up the peninsula."
VanderMey began his firefighting career as a volunteer in 1975. He has seen the community evolve from a farm community to a retirement and bedroom community, the pace accelerating over the years. The volunteers and staff of the independent Peninsula Township Fire and Rescue remain flexible, handling a variety of calls.
"We're kind of one-stop shopping here, if they don't know what to do, they'll call us," said VanderMey, noting they still get "cat in a tree" calls.
Pam VanderMey, Richard's wife, has been a volunteer firefighter /EMT with the department since 1986. She continues a family tradition as her uncle and grandfather were both volunteer firefighters. She recalls the earlier days of the department when her grandfather would get calls on the department 'party line.'
Before the 911 system began, the department had 12 phones distributed among its volunteers. When there was a fire or rescue call, these phones rang in one long continuous tone; the line broadcast the information about the call. Then each volunteer would call one or two others on their list to alert.
"Of course, you had to be home to get the call," Pam VanderMey noted.
VanderMey also said that while her department saves lives or property, firefighters and EMTs here, whether volunteer or paid staff, shun the term 'hero.'
"We don't see what we do as extraordinary, that's what we're trained to do, that's our job," she said. "I enjoy it, it's fun and a way to help people."