CALLICOON, NY — “At about 1 o’clock Tuesday morning [February 28, 1888], fire was discovered in the large store-building occupied by A.A, Eickhoff and runners were immediately dispatched through the village to get the citizens out to fight the element.” 

That’s according to Mary Curtis, former historian of the Town of Delaware, in a publication marking the 100th anniversary of the local fire department.

This month marks 136 years since the fire that ultimately gave Callicoon its fire companies.

“The fire made rapid progress down the street toward the railroad bridge, the high wind being favorable for its progress. Dycker’s, Stark’s, Rupperts’, Metzgers’ and the Best House, occupied by Lucy Mitchell, [fell] prey in succession to the devouring demon.”

And continuing in a voice from those bygone times, “The force of the wind was such that embers were carried as far as Callicoon Creek, and the ‘town bridge’ was on fire at one time…

The fiercest and hottest fire was in the vicinity of the Everard House, which for a time burned slowly, but eventually the large structure fell prey to the flames, and one of the best-appointed hotels on the Delaware Division of the Erie fell in a crash, a heap of glowing embers.” 

So the Callicoon Volunteer Fire Department was first organized in 1901, and within the next 10 years, there were three firefighting organizations in the village by the Delaware River: the Anderson Hook and Ladder Company (aka Hook and Ladder Company No. 1), the Terwilliger Hose Company, and the Reliance Fire Company (aka Delaware Hose Company No.2). 

In those early days, as parked freight trains at the depot made it difficult to get from one side of the tracks to the other, it was critical to have at least one volunteer fire company on each side of the railroad tracks.

Based upon an engineering survey conducted in 1913 to assess the state of fire protection in the village, the Anderson Hook and Ladder Company was located on South Main Street, near what is now the post office, while the Reliance Fire Company was also on the south side of the Erie Railroad tracks. The Terwilliger Hose Company No. 1 was quartered in a “partitioned-off room in a frame wagon shed in the rear” of what was then the Olympia Hotel.

Of note is that most of the apparatus in those days had to be pulled to fire scenes by manpower—or in the case of the first hook and ladder, by a horse.

In the late ‘20s or early ‘30s, the companies started using motorized vehicles, thus giving the firefighters and the horse a bit of welcome relief.

By 1934, the two remaining fire companies in Callicoon—the Anderson Hook and Ladder and the Terwilliger Hose No. 1—were consolidated under the watch of Herbert Persbacker, who served for 27 years as chief of the Callicoon Volunteer Fire Department.

Since Persbacker, the roster of fire chiefs has included Charles Engert, Charlie Mills, Bill Schultz, Frank Hahn Jr., Gerald “Skip” Mudge, Mike Henke, Ron Cucci,  Bob Gill, Mark Murphy, and Willy Maxwell.

All were described in “The Callicoon Volunteer Fire Department—A Century of Service” as having “given countless hours and days of their lives to the cause of fire protection for their community… served their communities without complaint and without any financial reward.”