Department History

About Vernon Central

Vernon Central Hose Company was chartered in 1945 on the same property it's
house on now, McMath Avenue in Vernon Township. It was organized by local
residents who saw the need for faster, reliable fire service.

Not being the kind of people to do things halfway, a few very short years later, in
1949, our department decided to begin dispatching fire services. We not only
provided dispatching for our department, but became Pennsylvania's first county
wide fire dispatch. Unfortunately, with success comes setbacks. Vernon Central
housed the dispatch on the second floor of the station and was manned by a
wonderful woman who lost her life in a fire at the station. We were able to pick up
the pieces and continue our service, but at a great loss.

A new station was put into service and our department was moving forward again.
Our station was home to some of the more up to date fire equipment of the times,
including one of the first four HURST rescue tools in Crawford County. We not only
covered Vernon Township with rescue services, but responded into the western part
of the county near Linesville and Pymatuning. Our department became one of the
premier rescue services in the region and began to specialize in that field.

In the early 80's our station underwent more changes with the expansion of our truck
garage. No more would we pack the trucks into the garage. We had the garage
expanded into three double bays to hold our growing fleet. As the next two decades
progressed, we gave the entire building a facelift, added landscaping and increased
parking for our social club (members only). We also updated our equipment. In the
70's we called on American LaFrance to build our two front line attack engines, one
of which we still run today. As our rescue services demand increased, we had a
rescue truck built especially to house the tools of the trade and carry extra manpower
and ems equipment. This allowed us to abandon the old bread truck we used for
years.

It wasn't until the 90's that our department saw such growth and prosper that we
made the big move into larger more efficient fire equipment. In 1993, we purchased
an E-One Heavy Rescue and increased the amount of rescue equipment we use.
This allowed us to have two sets of rescue tools and the ability to work from both
sides of the truck simultaneously. This was a first for Crawford County. In 1995, we
replaced our 1974 American LaFrance Pioneer Engine with a state of the art E-One,
6-man cab attack engine. We increased the amount of personnel space, water and
pump size.

In 2001, we continued making equipment improvements by purchasing a second
E-One engine. This was bigger yet, holding more water and increasing space for
carrying equipment. It also gave us the opportunity to put two kinds of foam on the
truck, ready to flow with water at the pull of a lever. This makes the old task of
cyphening foam from a bucket, obsolete. Not to mention, having hydraulics lower the
ladders at the side of the truck so personnel don't strain to obtain this equipment.

A lot has changed over the past 59 years. And in 2002, we expanded our building
again. This gave us more space in the truck garage, crew areas and the ladies
auxilliary kitchen. We placed new kitchen appliances, furniture and exercise
equipment in our new space.

Vernon Central Hose Company continues to grow with the times and provides not
only fire and rescue services but quick medical response to our residents. We cover
68.2 square miles in Vernon and Union Townships and protect about 7,500 people.
Vernon Township is primarily commercial, residential and some light industrial
while Union Township is mainly residential and rural. ISO ratings: Vernon - 5 and
Union - 8. This translates into better property values and insurance costs. And we
strive to improve these numbers each year, creating more benefits for the residents
we serve.