Alva Fire Department History Page 1
1893 - 1987
Alva, Oklahoma is located in the northwestern part of Oklahoma, the northeastern part of Woods county. Alva was founded in 1893.

Alva's early fire protection was wooden barrels filled with water from the town well and stationed at convenient places on the wide wooden sidewalks around the town square. The volunteer firefighters, composed of businessmen and townsman, formed a Bucket Brigade and used the water in the barrels to fight fires. The first recorded fire that was fought in Alva occurred on February 20,1894, in which a two room house was totally destroyed.

In 1901 the city council voted to pay $12.00 a month to a man to furnish water in town for watering teams and to keep the barrels full in case of a fire. The town then acquired a man drawn hose cart and with meager water pressure fought fires as best as they could.

In 1902, nine years after the founding of the town, Alva had a city hall which was a one story frame building. The fire department was housed in the front room and also housed the office of the city attorney and the police court.

With the date unknown, this card was sent to the fire chief in the early 1900s. (note where it says Oklahoma Territory) 1.2.

In 1904 Alva recorded in its books the establishment of the Alva Fire Department. Dennis Devlin was the first recorded Fire Chief. It was recorded that the Chief and the Assistant Chief would both receive the sum of $25.00 per month. The next fire apparatus acquired by the town was a fire wagon pulled by a team of bays. (named-doc and pat) This piece of apparatus consisted of 800 feet of hose and other miscellaneous pieces of equipment. Concerning the volunteers, the city decided to pay the sum of $2.00 to the driver of the first two horse teams which shall hitch to one of the hose carts or Hook and Ladder wagons after an alarm of fire.

F.C Howard was the next Fire Chief 07/01/1909. He only served 3 years.

In October of 1910, Alva joined the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association, thus entering the state retirement plan. Since then there has been a record kept of all members of the Alva Fire Department. Click here to see the list.

A new city hall was built in 1911. Standing in front of the fire bays with the fire wagon is Lute Yuille, pictured in 1911.

In early 1912 Chief Howard had this picture taken of the current members of the Alva Fire Department.

In late 1912 A.W. Shattuck became Fire Chief

In 1915 Shattuck was succeeded by R.M Winger.

In 1917 under the supervision of Chief Winger, Alva purchased their first self propelled fire truck, a 1917 model Seagrave. This picture was taken shortly after the truck was purchased. Here is another picture.

In 1918 Lute Yuille became chief.

In 1920 Wes Warren was Fire Chief for 34 years, 1920 to 1954. He served a total of 45 years on the Fire Department.

In 1925 this Picture was taken of the current members of the Alva Fire Department. If you will notice on this picture on the left side is a picture of the city hall. On the back side of this building is the bell tower that was used to alert the firefighters, who were not at the station, that there was an emergency.

In 1927, a Sea graves 600 GPM Pumper was purchased. This Picture was taken of the current members and the two pieces of apparatus now owned by the city of Alva and operated by the Alva Fire Department.

In 1944 a 1944 model seagraves Quad 750 GPM Pumper was delivered via boxcar to the city of Alva.

In 1954 Chief Warren retires and John Groh serves as Fire Chief for12 years, 1954 to 1966

In 1954 a group photo was taken in front of the 1927 Seagrave.
Standing on the front row left to right: 1.R.M. Beeler, 2.Lester Achemire, 3.Van Kendrick, 4.Chief John Groh, 5.Marion Miller, 6.Lee Rudy.
Standing on the back row left to right, 1.Ira Sanderson, 2.Dean Ferguson, 3.Jack Grahm, 4.Virgil McDaniel, 5.Chas Trenfield, 6.Johnnie Herold, 7.N.J.(Bud) Strausbaugh, 8.Ed Barret, 9.Tom Terbush, 10.Eldon Easterly, 11.Chet Stone, 12.Jack Walcot.

In 1954 a 1954 ford 750 GPM Pumper was purchased..

In 1960 this picture was taken of the current members. This Picture was taken of 1927,1944 and 1954 model Pumper with some of the members standing by them.

Tom Terbush served as Fire chief for 4 years from 1966 to 1970.

In 1966 a new city hall was built to replace the old one on the same land. During its construction the Fire Department was housed in the National Guard Armory for 14 months.

In 1967 these pictures were taken of the firefighters. 1. 2.

On November 18, 1968 The City of Alva and the Alva Fire Department purchased a 1968 1000 G.P.M. F-950 Boardman Pumper.

In 1970 this Picture was taken of Tom at his retirement party.

Jack Haltom served on the Fire Department for 23 years, 1-10-59 To 7-2 82 Jack served as Fire Chief for 12 years, 4-1-70 to 7-2-82, until he retired. He worked for O.S.U. Fire Service Training for 18 years totaling 41 years in the fire service.

On 5/2/1972 Woods County district One purchased a used 1967 cab and chassis that once was used as a milk truck. The county put a 1640 gallon tank on it and the fire department used this as their tanker.

In 1973 a 1973 F-900 50 foot Pierce Telesqurt was purchased by the City of Alva. An interesting story goes with this truck. When this truck was delivered on our council meeting night, the poor guy who was driving it just about got lynched. You see, this truck was ordered RED!! As you can see on the apparatus page it is white!!! This Picture was taken of the current members in 1973.

In 1973 a 1973 400 gallon tank, brush rig was purchased by the county and housed at the Alva Fire Department. This truck was also used as our rescue.

In 1975 the city purchased a new F-750 cab and Chassis and used the box and pump from the 1954 model pumper.

On March 9th 1979 the IGA store caught on fire. This is a picture of the Telesqurt driven by John Farris sitting up in front of the store.

In 1980-1981 Jack served as President of the Oklahoma Fire Chiefs Association. He also served on the Oklahoma State Marshal Commission. He served as President of the Oklahoma chapter of the I.A.A.I after which he served as chaplain. He was also selected as"The fire chief who contributed the most to Fire Service Training and education" by the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association's Educational Advisory Committee.

On March 21, 1981 this picture was taken of the Riggs fire that destroyed three businesses.

This is a Picture taken July, 18 1981 of John Farris and Len Haight at a car wreck 5 miles east of Alva.

In 1982 this was a picture taken of Jack at his retirement party.

Howard Dunlap served as Fire Chief for 2 years from 1983 to 1985.

On March 13, 1987 at 05:40 pm we were called to a fire at Holtzclaw Jewelry which totally destroyed the building and causing damage to Northwest Electric, Daisy Village, Tyree's and the Rialto.
Here are pictures of the fire. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Roger Mantz served as Fire Chief for 2 years from 1985 to 1987.