Chautauqua Fire Department

Chautauqua is one of the most unique communities in Chautauqua County and one of the most challenging to provide with emergency services. Compared with just a few hundred winter residents, the Chautauqua Institution springs to life at the end of June every year when the population escalates to 12,000 for the nine-week summer season.

The fire department's calls also soar from an average of 15 a month in the offseason to more than 100 calls a month in July and August, two-thirds of which are medical in nature. The ambulance carries the best pre-hospital care equipment available and the fire/EMS personnel are well trained and experienced.

The first assembly at Chautauqua gathered in the wooded grove on the lakefront in August 1874 with the goal of the founders to provide Bible study, teacher-training classes, musical entertainment and recreation. As Chautauqua expanded its program the following summer, the assembly attracted an estimated 30,000 people. It was that second year in 1875 that a small group of men who lived and worked there year round formed the auxiliary fire company.

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Destructive fires on the Institution grounds in the early years were in March 1887 when 50 houses were razed in the area off Palestine Park. Fire destroyed several platform tents and camp meeting dwellings on the south end of Miller Park in 1889.

In 1890, representatives of the Chautauqua Assembly purchased fire equipment including hand pumpers, hose carts and chemical carts for the use of the fire company. The equipment was upgraded again in 1909 with new hose and chemical carts, a hand pumper and a hook and ladder truck, all hand drawn. The first mechanized apparatus put into service at Chautauqua was a 1922 Model A Ford.

The water treatment plant built in the 1870s pumped water from the lake up to the golf course ponds at 25 gallons per minute which supplied 4-inch water mains and hydrants in the center of the grounds. A 6-inch grid was installed in the 1890s. New pumps were added in 1928 with a capacity of 600 gallons per minute and water tanks were built at the golf course capable of supplying 725,000 gallons of water per day. A 10-inch main looping the entire perimeter of the grounds was added in the early 1950's providing fire flow at all hydrants in excess of 1,000 GPM. The most recent pumps installed in 2004 can supply 1.5 million gallons of water per day.

The fire company petitioned the county in 1906 to incorporate the Chautauqua Fire Department with the stated purpose to fight fire and conflagrations. The current fire district provides protection to the Institution as well as a rural area extending along the lakeshore from Lighthouse Point eight miles south to Magnolia and west to the border of the Sherman fire district at the Weber Road. The fire district is governed by a five-member elected fire commission.

Members

50-YEAR MEMBERS

Royal Briggs Sr.

Guy Burdick Sr.

George Cornell Jr.

Robert Erickson

Lewis Johnson

ACTIVE MEMBERS

Chief Mark Powers

1st Asst. Adam Akin

2nd Asst. Pat Lynch

3rd Asst. Ray Spacht

Alan Akin

Ken Aldrich

Audrey Andzelik

Alisha Auge

Levi Auge

Todd Bauer

Bob Benjamin

Scott Brasted

Ben Briggs

Janet Briggs

Jessie Briggs

Royal Briggs Jr.

Guy Burdick Sr.

Eagle Eagle

Bob Furman

Jim Gleason

Kirsten Gleason

Craig Greenberg

Jerry Grice

Kevin Houghwot

Kevin Hughes

Doug Ireland

Joyce Ann Jacobson

George Jarrell

Tiara Kelly

Rich Moschel

Tadd Newell

Clem Reiss

Dave Rowe

Charles Schiller

Charles Smith

Dale Weatherlow

FIRE COMMISSION

Charles Krause, chair

Alan Akin

William Jones

Thomas McGann

Chester Schaal