History

Fox Chapel Volunteer Fire Department was originally started by the Fox Chapel Authority (water authority), but was disbanded at the end of World War II. At that time, Senator William Flynn, who owned nearby Beechwood Farms, purchased two Army Surplus fire trucks- one was kept at the Borough building and one was housed at Beechwood Farms. Paul Boyle, the farm’s foreman, trained the other workers on how to use the truck.

In August of 1953, a group of men including Hap Humes, Joe Becker, and Bob Fay met at the American Legion in Aspinwall with plans to charter a new volunteer fire company for the Fox Chapel area. They each attended Allegheny County’s fire school and were educated further by the Guyasuta Fire Department.  The Fox Chapel VFD was formally established in late 1953.

At it’s start, the FCVFD was fortunate enough to have many volunteers, but equipment was scarce. For instance, the department was not radio dispatched. The local water plant was responsible for taking all fire emergency calls and contacting Beechwood Farms with the appropriate information. Those on duty were responsible for sounding the fire alarm by manually flipping the switch at the base of the siren pole. In wasn’t until 1958 that the FCVFD started using radios on the county wide dispatch service.

In 1960, the FCVFD’s substation was constructed on Dorseyville Road, across from Beechwood farms.  This station was a welcome addition to our department as it not only provided clean, ample space for fire apparatus of the time, but it was also heated.  Prior to the construction of this station, the 1958 Mack fire engine housed at Beechwood farms had a heater hanging above the pump of the truck to keep water from freezing, but the tires of the truck would often freeze in the mud of the barn floor.  Both fire stations were also utilized as polling locations for many years.

In the 1980s, the FCVFD grew and acquired a 4×4 mini-pumper as well as its first rescue truck.  A decade later, in the late 1990s, our Station 1 (located behind the Borough building) gained an extra garage bay and bathroom facility as part of the Borough of Fox Chapel’s Borough building expansion project which included construction of the Borough Council chamber above our station.  In 2003, the FCVFD celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

At the time of its establishment in 1953, Fox Chapel was still very much a rural community- many fires the FCVFD responded to were brush fires.  Some older and retired members have fantastic stores about calls such as responding to brush fires (both intentionally and unintentionally started), sliding sideways through the mud in an old fire engine on farm land that is now occupied by such things as residential homes or businesses within RIDC park.  In recent decades, the FCVFD responds to a small number of actual “fires” each year.  Many of the FCVFD’s calls are “good intent” false alarms (burnt food, dust from a contractor, steam from a shower, etc.), vehicle accidents, carbon monoxide incidents, natural gas leaks, trees and wires down, etc.  While we are a “fire department”, we have grown to respond to much more than just incidents involving fire.

Visit the “Retired Apparatus” page to learn about the history of vehicles used by the FCVFD.