The Old Dominion Historical Fire Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 4196, Chester, VA 23831
E-mail: info@odhfs.org

Virginia Regional Chapter SPAAMFAA

A Non-profit, Educational, Historical Organization Dedicated to the Preservation of Fire Service History

 Flickr Photo
Archive

New Photography Exhibition Chronicles History of Firefighting in Richmond
Richmond Area Firefighters Receive Complimentary Admission Throughout October  

The Valentine Richmond History Center opened the new exhibit in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Richmond Fire Department. Of particular interest is Stop, Drop and Roll: Firefighting in 20th Century Richmond, an exhibition of images and archival objects related to public safety, firefighters and fire disasters in 20th century Richmond. 

The exhibition opened on October 3, 2008, and will run through March 31, 2009. Admission is $10 per person ($7 seniors and children ages 6-18). 

The History Center is located at 1015 E. Clay Street in Richmond’s historic Court End district and is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. Parking is available in the History Center lot on 10th Street between Marshall and Clay Streets or in the VCU Hospital garage at Leigh and 12th Streets.

For more information visit the website: Valentine Richmond History Center, or call 649-0711 ext. 301.

The Richmond Fire Department celebrated its 150th anniversary 
as a paid fire department on October 25, 2008.

There is a flyer here about the RFD history-yearbook. 
If you would like one, you need to fill out the form and mail it in. 

ODHFS member Bill Killen is written about in this newspaper article from Tennessee. 

August 30, 2008
(TN) Alderman authors book to benefit firefighting
Source: The Rogersville Review, By Joel Spears

CHURCH HILL — Dual passions in life influenced Church Hill Alderman Bill Killen to recently write and publish “Firefighting With Henry’s Model T,” a collection of photographs and short stories that examines a century of firefighting with the Model T Ford.

Read the whole story at the link above.

Greetings to each of you!

By now you will have received your most recent club newsletter. Inside you will have found 4 fire trucks that were offered to our club to dispose of and do with what we wished. The Officers and Directors reviewed this, came up with a game plan of action, and prepared to present them to you for sale.

However during this time a question arose as to who had final say over these units and their disposal as well as what if any restrictions would be placed on them from the current owners. As this progressed forward, it appeared we would not get the information in time to meet our newsletter deadline. Rather than holding the newsletter, we chose to advertise these units with what information we had at that time with the hopes that everything would stay as discussed. We did take the extra step of noting that the auction is contingent upon final approval by the owners.

By this letter, obviously this has not been the case. We have now been told that these trucks are in fact going to be disposed of by the current owners as they see fit. The ODHFS will not have anything to do with the disposal. (Note - Disposal does not necessarily mean crushing. They may go to a place where they will be restored.) This may or may not come back to us at a later date. Should it come back we will re-advertise at that time. But for now this is dead and gone and we do not anticipate it coming back.

We are sorry if one or more of these peaked your interest but wished to get the ad out in a timely manner to meet their self imposed deadline as well as our meeting the current newsletter. We were just not able to work out the final arrangements as we had hoped.

Thanks for your consideration and we look forward to seeing you out at an event soon.

ODHFS Directors and Officers

ODHFS Historical Archives & Collection

ODHFS Research and Archive Order Form
08/30/2008

The ODHFS has collected a large volume of material over its 30 year history concerning all aspects of an antique fire related nature. Slides, books, news articles, manuals, and lots of photos to name just some of the items in this collection. These archived materials may be the single largest collection of antique resources available anywhere.

A sincere vote of thanks goes to Tommy Herman, historian and archivist for ODHFS, for collecting and maintaining this fine collection. Currently the collection resides in the Herman home in Chesterfield and it is from here that Tommy receives and answers upwards of 3 dozen requests a year for various items.

A decision was made by the officers and directors of ODHFS in the fall of 2007 to begin to catalog this collection so that this entire collection of resource material could be shared with club members and other like-minded individuals. Bill Jones has agreed to head up this effort with assistance from other club members ( Tommy Herman serving as Chairman, Richard Moss, Karl Ehlshlager, Bob Rohrbach, Henry Kidd and Pete West).

Cataloging a collection of this size will require many man hours and take some time to complete. There will be costs associated with this cataloging to include computer expenses, additional file cabinets, and adequate storage and preservation materials.

In order to support the cost of this project the ODHFS will begin to charge for requests for materials from its archived collection. These costs are not at the same level the AACA charges SPAAMFAA members to access the same type materials we have. Details of the charges are on the order form. 

These charges do not represent a fund raising effort. Monies generated will be used to support purchase of supplies to maintain the collection and to purchase additional historical items as necessary.

Clyde Clark, President

ODHFS Roster Book Information and Update!

The New Club Roster was distributed on CD to ODHFS members at the annual 
meeting. This is the 20th anniversary of our first ODHFS Roster book. The first edition was printed in 1987 and we are actively looking for a copy of that edition for the club archives. The second edition was published in 1997 in booklet form. The 2007  information was provided on CD and can be printed and put in a three ring binder so future changes, additions and deletions will be easier over time.  
A big thank you to Richard Moss who compiled and formatted the information. 

ODHFS members who have not yet submitted information and/or photos for the 
roster should download the following files and provide the information 
requested. Contact your Regional Director with any questions. 

ODHFS Roster Project Letter to Members 
and
ODHFS Roster Project Information Form

ODHFS Officers - 2008

President: Clyde Clark - (703)255-2016

Vice President: Richard Cohron - (540)337-0740

Secretary:  Richard Moss - (804)748-2940

Treasurer: Mike Dubus - (804)748-4048
                                                        (804)748-5914 (Fax)

Historian/Archivist: Tom Herman - (804) 590-1239

2008 Directors
For information about ODHFS events and activities, contact your Regional Director:  

CENTRAL_REGION - Contact Bill Jones for info at (804)965-0484

NORTHERN_REGION - Contact Peter West at (540)338-9132

EASTERN REGION - Contact Joe Bunting - (757)868-9150

WESTERN REGION - Contact Karl Ehlshlager at (540)777-2033

SOUTHWEST REGION - Contact Nollie Neill, Jr. at (336)657-8621

SAFETY OFFICER - Contact Bob Banach at (757)546-3916

ODHFS Members and Equipment in Print!

Did you know that the The Virginia Fire News Magazine has an on-going series of articles on the apparatus owned by members of the ODHFS? Thus far, profile articles have been done for Karl Ehlshlager’s 1952 Corbitt/Oren from Roanoke, Pete West's 1926 Buffalo from Mahoney City, Pennsylvania, and Glasgow’s unique 1956 Dodge ladder truck. Future articles are planned for Bill Jones 1974 Jeep from Henrico County, Stuarts Draft American LaFrance ladder truck, Twin Communities 1974 International/Oren, Ebony’s 1964 Maxim, and more.

Each article profiles the history and information of our club member’s trucks, 
and includes a photograph of the truck.

For information about the magazine, contact ODHFS member Jerry Puryear.

The most current issue of the Old Dominion Historical Fire Society's newsletter, The Torchbearer, is available on-line. 

To view, click on the appropriate link below: 
High Resolution photographs but big file ( about 5 MB ) --> http://home.mindspring.com/~newslet/odhfs/TorchPr.pdf 

or Lower Resolution pictures but smaller size ( about 1/2 MB) --> http://home.mindspring.com/~newslet/odhfs/TorchSc.pdf 

If you have trouble with these links, try typing it in manually in your browser window.
 
Note: The Newsletter is saved as a PDF file. If you do not have the free reader for PDF files, you can get it here. 
If you have any problems or comments, please contact Richard Moss

ODHFS Safety Policy and Rules 

Word Version - ODHFS Safety Policy and Rules

PDF File (Adobe Acrobat Reader) - ODHFS Safety Policy and Rules

and

ODHFS Apparatus Inspection Form (Word format - 63kb)

ODHFS Apparatus Inspection Form (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format - 75kb)
As described and reviewed at the 2006 Annual Meeting by Rocky Keplinger

Click here for lots of photos from the 
SPAAMFAA Annual Meeting & Winter Convention
and ODHFS Annual Meeting
February 12 - 16, 2003
Hosted by ODHFS in Richmond, VA

For SPAAMFAA members who would like a copy of the notes from 
Wayne Kidd's presentation on "Understanding Apparatus Electrical Systems"    

Click here for the Word Version 
or 
Click here for a .pdf version (Adobe Acrobat Reader)