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The Lansing Volunteer Fire Department is planning a party -- a big party.  Hundreds of past and present members have been invited to celebrate the department's centennial on August 6th.  If they put a candle on the cake for every year, they'll need a fire department to put it out!

Today the department has four fire stations, nine large fire trucks and a host of support vehicles, and about 60 members.  Originally there were five fire companies in Ludlowville, Lansingville, North Lansing, South Lansing, and what is now the Village of Lansing.  The five companies merged in the '70s.  But 100 years ago things were very different.

"Now we have a lot fewer people and more emergencies popping up," says Fire Department President and Fire Commissioner Robert Wagner.  "We're running about 1,000 a year between EMS and fire calls."

	The Town of Lansing is also planning a celebration.  2017 will mark the 200th birthday of the township.

Each of the original companies has its own history.  While the department is based at Central Station on Ridge Road now, that building replaced an earlier one down the street that today houses Cayuga Lake Sudo Karate and other business spaces.

Lifelong resident Fannie Welsh recalls the origins of the South Lansing fire company in a 1937 fire that destroyed George Bardo's general store and house.  The store was one of the oldest buildings in the county, located where a dog grooming business and Liberty Liquors now stand, and his house was next to the store.

"Early in the morning George would go over and set the bread inside the store before making his deliveries.  When he went in he heard a roar and the place was on fire," Welsh recalls.  "Because it was around six in the morning Bernard Azika was probably getting ready to go to work at the rock salt mine, and Ed Ozmun was a farmer, so he was up.  They got a bucket brigade together, and they started fighting it.  John Howland, who was the Highway Superintendant at that time, went up and got a snow plow.  They pulled the burning building away so the Minier house didn't burn, but it was scorched.  They were afraid the whole little village of South Lansing would go up."


The community borrowed $10,000, spending almost half on a fire station in 1938, and the rest to purchase a 350-gallon pumper.  Welsh says they paid the loan back relatively quickly after the district was formed.  The pumper's first emergency was a grass fire on Asbury Road.

Wagner became Department President a year or two before the move from South Lansing Station to Central Station in 1978.  He has been Fire Department President for about 35 years, and says a lot has changed in those decades.

"Back in the day most of the fire stations had an engine and a tanker," he recalls.  "Ludlowville had a tanker and an ambulance.  The ambulance moved to South Lansing after the merge, and was finally discontinued over 20 years ago.  South Lansing also had an equipment truck.  Station 5 only had fire engines -- they didn't need a tanker there because there were hydrants in that area of Lansing.

Wagner says the introduction of automatic alarms caused many false alarms until the technology was improved over his time.  That meant the department was constantly called to what was then known as the Pyramid Mall, although few of the calls were actual emergencies.  And there were other changes over his years in the department.

In 1951 drinking and gambling in the South lansing fire station had gotten out of hand. (Click to see the a larger version. Document courtesy of the Lansing Historical Association and Lansing Town Historican Louise Bement)"Things were different way back then," Wagner continues.  "In the late '70s and '80s there was a soda machine that dispensed beer out in the equipment bay.  But now with OSHA training and everything it's very professional.  You can't have alcohol on the premises unless it's been authorized by the Chief, the President of the Department, or the Board of Fire Commissioners as a whole.  Then they oversee it and if anything is wrong they shut it down."

Evidently drinking -- and gambling -- was a long-held firefighter tradition.  A 1951 letter from the fire commissioners to department members laid down the law on drinking and gambling that had gotten out of hand.  Numerous complaints about late night reveling, excessive gambling and drinking resulted in limiting card game gambling to 50 cents, and shutting down the meeting room by 1pm.  The commissioners also demanded that the meeting hall, kitchen, and kitchen utensils be 'left in a sanitary condition', threatening to close the rooms altogether if the rules were violated.

Today the department is run professionally, with volunteers constantly maintaining the buildings and equipment, and training regularly at its new training tower behind Central Station, as well as other area facilities.  Last year Lansing responded to 967 emergency alarms -- 463 fire calls, and 504 EMS.  Nearly half the calls originate in the Village of Lansing.  Department members logged over 2,229 hours of training in 2015


Station 3 was built in Lansingville in 1978, the same year Central Station was built.  The North Lansing company was formed in 1958, and in 1959 the district bought them a 1947 Dodge high-pressure-fog truck for the new station.  In 1960 the North Lansing Auxiliary was officially formed, and remains very active to this day, raising money for local scholarships and charitable causes.  Station 4 (North Lansing) was completed and ready for use in 1962.  Lansingville station 3 went up in 1956.

The original Ludlowville fire station, which originally housed a horse-drawn pumper, was replaced some time before 1997, and the Almeda Lansing Ambulance service was begun, free of charge for Lansing residents.  Even before they merged, all the fire companies were busy.


"Mrs. Inez Ellis, who lived in Ludlowville, burned in 1952," Welsh remembers.  "Don Bush, who was the Postmaster, tried to save her.  He tried to get to the house, but he couldn't get her.  She had tried to light her oil stove, and whether the oil spilled or whatever happened, she burned to death."

"We still do pretty well," Wagner says.  "We have enough people who work for the Town and are able to leave work, or who work close by.  But we always need volunteers."

Wagner says the celebration will be held in the pavilion behind Central Station and in tents.  About 400 invitations have gone out, and the Department has already received many responses from former members who now live out of town or out of state.  Chief Scott Purcell is arranging with nearby fire departments to cover for Lansing  on the day of the party.  The department is buying the food for a clam bake-style dinner, which will be cooked by Lansing Rod & Gun Club members.  It will include clams, corn, sausage, hot dogs, hamburgers, and salads.  Games are planned for the kids, and give-aways will be handed out.  The evening will end with a bang -- fireworks, that is.


Wagner says the whole shebang will be paid for by '2% Money', not by local property taxes.  New York's foreign fire tax program (2% Money) requires foreign and alien insurance companies to pay a 2% tax on fire insurance premiums on property located within the state. The money can only be spent to benefit all fire department members for specifically regulated purposes, including departmental dinners and parties; appliances and furniture in fire stations; dress & parade uniforms and other clothing items for department members, like T-shirts or boots or hats; offset of costs from group life or disability insurance; and office equipment.  Wagner says the department has been saving $10,000 a year for the past three years from the 16 to 17 thousand dollars it receives annually in 2% money.

"How much of that we actually spend I don't know," he says.  "The money will cover the cost of the party, take-home keepsakes, and other things.  We'll have shuttles so there will be no drinking and driving.  How often do you turn 100?  We're going to have a good time."

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