Early History
By Alex Gianopoulos
In 1964 Jack and Bill Swets founded the Timnath Fire Department because the nearest station was in Fort Collins. But there was much history in the building before that. For example many men would get together and fight fires before it was official, that's how so many things were purchased before 1964. For a while the fire station was a store and then many stores but after that it was a butcher shop and finally a fire station. It still is a fire station today and has two trucks, soon to be three.
In 1875 the Fireman's Tournament started. In that competition different fire stations would have their firefighters do obstacle courses. While that lasted great rivalries were made.
In 1928 high water pressure and a $20 fire extinguisher were purchased. The Department's first chief was Jim Joyce and their first volunteers were Fred Thayer, Fred Weitzel, Charlie Royce, Albert West and Victor and Jim Billington. In the 1940's the department bought four hundred feet of fire hose, two PHS #15 fire extinguishers at fifty two dollars and fifty cents each.
January 1st through July 1st 1969, there were 615 fighting hours, 400 training hours and 250 hours working on equipment and facilities which was really tiring. Timnath Voluntary Fire Department became part of Poudre Valley Fire Authority in 1969 and its first major fire was that of Old Main, May 9, 1970. Old Main was the administration building for Colorado State University.
Bibliography
Miller, Del, and Elsie Fisher. Timnath, Fort Collins, CO: The Columbine Club, 1996.
Ahlbrendt, Arelne, and Kathryn Stieben. Larimer County History, Fort Collins, CO: Curtis Media Corporation, 1985. Timnath Fire Department
My Personal Page- Alex Gianopoulos
I created this history of Timnath Voluntary Fire Department when I was in the sixth as a part of a final choice class. I chose to do the Fire Station because it had a really interesting history and its firefighters saved many peoples' lives. Where I got my information was the Timnath History book, The Larimer County History Book, and Mike McBride who is a firefighter at the Timnath Fire Station. He told us some useful information.
Before the interview I wasn't really nervous but I really wanted to meet Mike McBride. Some pre-research I did was look up information in the Timnath History book, and the Larimer County History Book. The most interesting thing someone told me was that the fire station was a butcher shop because the whole time people told me that it was a bank, but the bank was really next door. Also the interviewing experience was very fun because I learned a lot.
Thank you Mrs. Durkin for helping me get my article put together. Thank you Mr. Durkin for helping me set up a link and helping me put my article on the web. Also I would like to thank Mike McBride and Andy Russell for letting me interview you and ask a lot of questions.
My favorite part about this project was interviewing people because I learned something new. Future researchers should investigate more intently on the things that people did this year because there is very interesting information. One thing I could have gone about differently is to investigate each fire instead of just the Timnath Fire Station. How I would like to add to the legacy of Timnath history is by letting more people know about it. That is why I liked this project so much.
Recent History
By: Charlie Joslin
The Timnath Voluntary Fire Department was established in 1964 by Jack and Bill Swets. They made the Timnath Voluntary Fire Department because the nearest one was in Ft. Collins.
Their first major fire was the Old Main fire at CSU. In 1919 the Lunds store had a fire in the back portion. In 1935 the Timnath school burned down. In 1937 the Russell house was completely destroyed by a fire. In 1955 the Timnath Garage and Gas Station caught on fire. In 1969 Lund Weitzil's garage and its contents were destroyed in a fire. In 1995 the Alpine Cabinet shop on Timnath Main Street was severely damaged by a three alarm fire and only one person died.
Even though the fire station is very old, fire fighters still use it today. There weren't that many fire trucks. There were two. Soon there's going to be three. One of the current trucks is a Ford F-550 and the other is a water truck. They now work 12 hour shifts for 2 days. Fifty years ago the uniforms were navy blue with hats. We figured out that the fire station was not a bank but a butcher shop. You would always think that a fire station would have Dalmatians right, wrong, they had some cats and no dogs.
Bibliography
Miller, Del and Elsie Fisher. Timnath, Fort Collins, CO: The Columbine Club, 1996.
Ahlbrendt, Arelne and Kathryn Stieben. Larimer County History, Fort Collins, CO: Curtis Media Corporation, 1985.
Andy Russell. Personal Interview. 8 May, 2002.
