Fire protection has always been important to the city of Fort Wayne - so important that there was a Fort Wayne Fire Department even before there was a city of Fort Wayne.

Fort Wayne officially achieved city status in 1840, but the first organized fire company was formed on Aug. 30, 1839, and located in a fire house at the northeast corner of Main and Clinton streets, where Freimann Square is today.

The original fire department, though, had begun to fall apart by the late 1840s as its members became more active in the community and as a result had less time for volunteer firefighting.

In the summer of 1848 a group of German immigrants came forward to organize the Germania Fire Company, which lasted until the mid 1850s.

In 1860, the city erected a new firehouse at the northeast corner of Court and Berry streets. A second new fire house was built soon after on Wallace Street when it became apparent the growing city required a growing fire department as well.

In 1893, fire house No. 3 was erected on West Washington Boulevard and became the flagship of the department. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Wing & Mahurin, which designed several other prominent Fort Wayne buildings, including Old City Hall. The house was expanded in 1907. It was equipment from fire station No. 3 which responded to the fire at the Aveline Hotel on May 3, 1908 - the fire which claimed 11 lives and still ranks as the worst in city history.

The completion of engine house No. 3 followed on the heels of the completion of a new central fire house in 1892 on the north side of Main Street between Barr and Lafayette streets, where the Performing Arts Center is now. In the next six years five additional stations were built. The expansion was so well planned that the fire department did not expand again for 20 years, despite continued growth of the city. Fire station No. 9 opened on Winter Street in 1918 and was the first station designed for motorized equipment. The city's fire department had finally left the horse and buggy era.

The 1892 central station closed in 1972, and the station at Main and Lafayette streets is the central fire house now. House No. 3 was closed that same year and leased to the Firefighters' Museum in 1975. Several antique fire engines are now stored there, remembering a time when steam-fired engines were drawn to fires by horses.

--June 12, 1982