How it all began!
| A group of concerned individuals met at the home of Mr. Vernon Grant on April 6, 1955, for the purpose of organizing a volunteer fire department in the Lesslie Community. A subsequent meeting was held on May 31, 1955 and the Lesslie Community Fire Department, Inc. was formed and obtained a state charter for an eleemosynary corporation. This meeting was prompted after York County House of Representative J. Bate Harvey introduced a bill before the House of Representatives in Colombia to provide York County citizens with some type of rural fire protection. Approval was given and the York County Rural Fire Commission was established. This Commission acted promptly and was eager to furnish the tuck and maintain it, but the housing facility of the unit was to be provided by the community or town. It was through the efforts of this community that a building was constructed at the previous site. The building was a one-bay fire station large enough for one truck and for a period of time had a dirt floor. As time progressed and funds were available, improvements were made. 1959, the Lesslie firemen decided they needed more water supply and this could be remedied by having a tanker truck. Naturally, the first item would be to enlarge the present station and this was done in 1959 and 1960 through donations and other fund raising projects. A 1953 Ford chassis was then purchased and work began on the building of the first tanker fire truck. Many hours of work were put into this unit and it was the first of it's kind to be added to the York County fleet of trucks. In 1963, the department received a 1963 3/4 ton 4-wheel drive pick up truck to be used as a grass fire unit. This was the first unit of its kind that the Country had purchased. This truck has proven to be very satisfactory in battling grass and woods fires. As you can see, this department is not one to stand still. In 1963-64, a meeting room was added and this brought the building up to its appearance in 1975. The Lesslie Volunteer Fire Department has always stressed service to its community and in order to serve the community better, an alerting system was purchased in 1967. This system would enable firemen to receive information through a receiver in his home concerning the type of fire and location and would result in quicker call response to calls. Again, Lesslie led the way. We were the first department to install an alerting system in York County. On January 19, 1967, we received our first replacement unit. This 1967 Ford Pumper replaced the original truck, a 1955 Ford. Since units do need to be replaced, early in 1971, the department began plans on replacing the 1953 Ford Tanker. A 1965 Ford chassis was purchased and much modification and improvements were made over the previous tanker. This unit has an investment of $10, 800, not including labor. Our department was very proud of that unit which had a value of at least $30,000. Through the years, the department has obtained more property in the form of land. After approximately two years of work, we acquired through donation in 1974, a parcel of land containing 1.3 acres from the Southern Railway, which is located across the street from our old location. We are presently located on this site in a new building constructed in 1975 and 1976. To keep up with rapid growth and provide better service to our area, we asked our citizens to approve a special tax district in our area to provide 2 new sub-stations and equipment. This was approved in 1994 and today we serve the area with 3 stations, 5 fire engines, 1 ladder truck, 2 tankers, 2 service trucks, and 2 grass tucks and have an ISO class of 6 rating fro the entire district even though we do not have fire hydrants on all roads We presently have 51 members who serve without pay. |
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