Glenville Fire Department to celebrate 100th birthday

Published 4:45 pm Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Glenville Fire Department plans to celebrate its 100th birthday in style during the Glenville Days celebration.

All current and retired fire department members are being asked to serve as grand marshals of the Glenville Days parade. A float is being prepared for them to ride on. The parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 13. Department members are asked to meet at the high school in Glenville at 9:30 a.m.

Following the parade, the Little King and Queen contest will be held. After that, at about noon, a special ceremony, titled “The Last Call,” will be held to honor all deceased firemen.

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According to Bob Krier, assistant chief, the department had hoped to gather all the names of the deceased firemen, but records only allowed them to go back to 1965.

So the department is compiling a list of all firefighters who ever served with the Glenville department. So far, they’ve gathered 114 names, he said.

“It’s been fun getting the list together,” Krier said. “But it would be good to get names from those first 50 years of our existence.”

Anyone who knows of people who may have served before 1965 is asked to call Krier at 448-3981 (work) or 448-2838 (home) or Jeff Rayman at 402-1247.

“From there, we’ll honor all deceased members,” Krier said.

Krier said from the names they have gathered, it’s been interesting to see family names appear and reappear.

“They kept on serving from generation to generation,” he said.

Eventually, the department hopes to have a “Wall of Flame” with all firefighters’ names on the wall, Krier said.

Krier said he hopes all current and former firefighters and their families attend the parade and ceremony.