MASSAPEQUA FIRE DEPARTMENT

Fire and water are linked together, with the latter used to control the former. The connection is unusually clear in the Massapequas, as shown in 2010 when the Historical Society, with William Colfer as President, erected a marker to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the Fire Department’s founding. The marker was placed directly in front of the Massapequa Water District building on Brooklyn Avenue. The reason was simply because that’s the site of Massapequa’s first permanent firehouse.

Massapequa’s population was growing in the early years of the twentieth century, as farmers settled in the northwest, German immigrants built houses in what became Massapequa Park, and the Queens Land and Title Company unveiled its ambitious plan to build a new city of 10,000 residents in the area between the Massapequa Preserve and Tackapausha Preserve. Private citizens as well as elected officials grew concerned about access to water, both for home and business consumption and for fighting fires. Eight individuals got together in 1910 and agreed to form a volunteer fire department to protect the area.  William Hoffmann was elected Chief, Christian Wentzler Assistant Chief, John Jones (descendant of Thomas Jones, the original settler) was named Treasurer and Howard Collins was designated Secretary.

Their first task was to locate a fire truck. After several months of fund raisers and requests for membership dues from residents ($.25), the Department was able to procure a truck, but was obliged to borrow horses from local farmers to respond to fires. Water was drawn from the nearest available stream, or from the newly-completed reservoir east of Broadway and north of what is today Sunrise Highway. After World War I, it became clear to all that better water sources were needed, especially with the emergence of the real estate firm of Brady, Cryan and Colleran, who planned fill the area that is today Massapequa Park with private houses. Accordingly, in 1927 the Town of Oyster Bay created the Massapequa Water District and let contracts to lay pipes and establish hydrants, ensuring a more effective response by the Fire Department to local fires.

The first house, from 1910, a wooden shed located on a Brooklyn Avenue farm, burned down and was replaced by a more modern facility in 1917, which eventually became the Water District’s headquarters. As population grew, the large station on Hicksville Road north of Sunrise Highway was completed in 1940, to serve residents of the Massapequas, many of whom lived in that area. A second house was built on Front Street in 1953, on the site of the former Woodcastle Hotel, as private houses proliferated in Massapequa Park. The third house was completed in 1963 to serve the southeastern part of the Massapequas. Today, almost 300 volunteers work out of one of these houses, and respond to 2400 calls in a typical year, a far cry from the 10 to 15 volunteers who reacted to 6 to 10 calls in the first few years.

The Historical Society’s marker recognizes the achievements of the Fire Department as well as its long-term service to the community.