1965 Chevy/Towers Pumper
1941 Ford & 1965 Chevy Pumper at New Firehouse
The first meeting to organize a fire company was held on December 14, 1933 at the barbershop. This meeting took place after a fire consumed a building owned by Philip Braun in July of 1932. Prior to that time the village had a primitive firefighting hand pump trailer however no organized fire company. That trailer was purchased by the village in the early 1920’s during prohibition. A fund-raising event involving Oliver Birkner and the Moonlighters played at Hecker’s very own Maniers Park(Now part of Eldondale Subdivision), followed by a picnic. An additional $400 was borrowed. The newly formed fire company got the village to build a new village hall in 1934 and construct 4 4000-gallon underground tanks in different parts of town for fire protection. The newly formed fire company consisted of Hugo Probst, President; August Frisch, Vice-President; Joseph Griffin, Secretary; Lester Gregson, Treasurer and William Fritsche, Fire Chief.
The initial boundaries of the fire company was just over a nine-mile radius. It included quite rural places such as the Lord’s Corner & east of Richland Creek to the Kaskaskia River into rural New Athens.
At first residents paid a $1.20 per year fire subscriber service fee. The department sent out yearly reminders. No taxes were collected.
The first Hecker Fire Department truck was a 1931 Model A. It had an open cab, a crank siren and 800 feet of leather hose. Several of the volunteer firefighters were mechanics and put it together themselves. Three helmets hung from back of that early truck; the chief had the red one. That truck remained in service from 1934-1941. In 1941 the department purchased 1941 Ford Pumper built by Central Fire Truck Corporation out of Chicago, IL. It had a Darley 250 GPM rotary pump with a 200-gallon water tank. This being war time, trucks were hard to obtain. The truck was ordered from Feurer Ford of New Athens, IL for Armin D. Reinhardt Construction of New Athens. Mr. Reinhardt let Hecker Fire Department buy that truck and he went to the bottom of the waiting list. It was then driven by firefighters to Chicago to get the fire truck body. That 1941 eventually had a second reincarnation as a Maull’s BBQ truck and was used by a St. Louis tavern to transport catered food to Busch Stadium boxes. After the Cardinal’s won the 1982 World Series the truck was used to bring in closing pitcher Bruce Sutter on the opening day of the 1983 season. The scoreboard acknowledged the truck as a previous Hecker Fire truck during that game and that fire department members were present during the game.
By 1958 the fire department sought approval from its voters to become the Hecker Fire Protection District. The district was established in 1959 with taxes collected in 1960. The new district collected $2,735 in 1960 from its property owners for tax year 1959.
In 1963 the district was in need of a larger firehouse so bonds were sold and it was soon constructed. It had 3 bays and a meeting area. In 1965 the Hecker Fire Protection District ordered its first new truck after forming the district, which cost $17,000. This was their first automatic truck. It was a 1965 Chevy built by Towers Fire Apparatus of Freeburg, IL. Many fire department members were truck drivers by trade, and their advice (including input from Raymond Braun), was to “Get an automatic transmission with Posi traction”. Fire Trustee Willard Probst said we should get an automatic transmission because one day not everyone will know how to drive a manual shift truck. This advice paid off in its early years as it made it up a hill in icy conditions when other department’s trucks had slid off the side of the road.
By 1971 they needed to add a back addition to the new house, so another 3 bays were added on the north side off the building. A used truck purchased from New Athens Fire Department was soon acquired. In 1978 the department purchased a brush truck, a 1978 Chevy 4×4 pickup especially suited by Towers Fire Apparatus to fight field fires. Another innovation was the purchase of the first set of “Jaws of Life” in 1989. The fire district paid half, and the volunteer firefighters donated the rest from the “dance fund” profits. Hecker was one of the first fire departments in the area to carry “jaws of Life” so they were routinely called to assist other departments. Firefighters again gave their time and talents in 1989 to convert an old milk truck into a water tender, a tanker truck. This was necessary for rural locations which had no access to fire hydrants. The tank on the truck held 2500 gallons of water. It took six months of working evenings and weekends to build it. As always, the volunteers didn’t give it a second thought, it needed to be done, and they did it. Latter firefighting equipment purchased includes a 1990 Ford/Towers Pumper, a 1999 Freightliner/Pierce Rescue-Pumper and a 2009 Spartan/Crimson Pumper-tanker.
In the early days, you called the fire department by telephoning, Greenwood 3-2211 latter 473-2211 which rang phones at the firefighters’ homes and places of business. The store and the chief’s house also had a button that would blow the siren at the firehouse alerting those firefighters outside that there was a fire call. 1 long blast was for an in-town fire and 3 short blasts was an out-of-town fire call. By 1992 both St. Clair and Monroe Counties had established 911 service and the fire phone system was shut down and radio pagers were used to notify the firefighters. While technology has advanced similar pagers are still used today with additional notifications including a smartphone app that provides mapping details and response data.
Monroe County Ambulance Service placed a BLS ambulance in service at the Hecker Fire Station in 1993 thanks to the dedication of 17 volunteer EMT’s from the community. By 2006 that roster was down to 4 EMT’s and it was no longer feasible to man an ambulance in Hecker. The fire department volunteers again stepped up to the plate to fix the problem. To better serve the community, a first responder service was added. While First Responders are much more limited in the type of medical procedures they can perform as compared to paramedics, they quickly arrive on the scene and can check vitals, give oxygen, use an AED, preform CPR and much more until an ambulance arrives. They transfer care to Monroe County, Millstadt, New Athens and Medstar ambulance services. Over ¾ of the department volunteered to take the first responder training. The fire company with the help off fund raisers such as the BBQ and the Trivia Night purchased and retrofitted a 1999 Chevy Suburban to be our first responder vehicle. In addition to the vehicle, the fire company also purchased all of the required EMS equipment. In 2012 that vehicle was replaced by the district with a 2012 Ford rescue truck which is in service today.
In 2019 the district was again in need of expanding. The station and the addition had bay doors only 10 feet high. The last two trucks had to be precisely specified and custom built to fit in the building. In addition to height the length of the bays was not adequate for modern fire apparatus. The district with the support of Schneider Designs of Waterloo entered into a contract with Shores Builders of Centralia to add on to the existing facility and renovate the existing space into a classroom. The new facility can now accommodate trucks up to 14 feet tall and 50 feet long and has a training classroom that can seat up to 50 people.
Special thanks to all the firefighters, directors, and contributors of the Hecker Fire Department, past and present for giving us the first-class department we have today.
Firefighters with the 41 Ford at Village Hall From Left to Right, Henery Armstutz, Fred Fritsche, Louis Armstutz, Aaron Papenberg, Bill Fritsche, Bob Laut, Werner Kammler, Henery Heulsman, Hugo Probst, Lester Gregson & Edwin Wachtel
1965-Firefighters with the 1965 Chevy Pumper at firehouse. From Left to Right, Roy Neff, Harold Eichenseer, Joe Wittenauer, Buck Burkhardt, Lee Guebert, Mel Wagner, Virgil Gregson, Aaron Papenberg, Don Haudrich, Rollie Huch, Orville Rist, Frank Kohler, Omar Drops, John Harbinson, Ervin Eckart, Perry Laut, Quentin Gregson, Edmund Eckart, Lester Gregson, Willard Probst & Wilfred Cortner
1979- Firefighter with 1978 GMC Brush Truck. From Left to Right front row, Dennis Esker, Harold Eichenseer, Paul Mertz, Orville Rist, Dale Papenberg, Don Haudrich, Frank Kohler, Edmund Eckart, Mike Kaltenbraun, Bill Happel, Gary Wittenauer & Quentin Gregson. Back Row, Left to right, Jim Sollee, Don Braun & Leo Lynch.
BBQ 1980’s- From Left to Right, Kelly Kimberlin, Ralph Eckart, Don Braun, Andy Amann, Mike Gregson, Edmund Eckart, Larry Schaltenbrand, Ricky Wittenaur, Jim Schneider, Quentin Gregson, Bill Happel, Dave Patrick, Paul Mertz, Marvin Gregson, Chuck Wagner, Steve R. Braun, Dale Papenberg, Gary Rist & Don Haudrich.
1997-Front Row Left to Right, John Kaiser, Mel Wagner, Dale Papenberg, Chuck Wagner, Steve R. Braun, Denny Karban, Gary Wittenauer, Marvin Gregson, Ralph Eckart. Second Row Left to Right, Tony Biffar, Bill Happel, Mike Gregson, Larry Cahoon, Frank Kohler, Daryl Mehrmann, Larry Schaltenbrand, Sid Grohman & Brian Casey. Third Row Left to Right, Steve Mertz, Gary Rist, Al Wagner, Kevin Braun, Joe Gregson, Gilbert Birkner, Arnie Eckart, Ron Wilson, Shane Callis, Don Harbaugh, Ron Casey, Charlie Harbaugh & Ricky Wittenauer.
2006- First Row Left to Right, Dennsi Karban, Gary Koenigstein, Ralph Eckart, Mel Wagner, Dale Papenberg, John Kaiser, Marvin Gregson, Gary Wittenauer, Joe Gregson & Kevin Biffar. Second Row Left to Right, Ron Casey, Charles Kujawski, Chad Cowell, Don Wagner, Brian Casey, Arnie Eckart, Charlie Harbaugh, Chuck Wagner, Gilbert Birkner, Jeff Biffar, Justin Eckart, & Craig Moll. Third Row Left to Right, Mike Karban, Mike Kaiser, Rich Happel, Kevin Kreher, Ricky Wittenauer, Al Wagner, Tony Biffar, Don Harbaugh, Steve M. Braun & Daryl Mehrmann
2009-Left to Right, Phil Lippert, Darren Mehrmann, Mike Kaiser, Mike Karban, Greg Wiegand, Rich Happel, Jeff Biffar, Kevin Kreher, Joe Gregson, Gilbert Birkner, Daryl Mehrmann, Arnie Eckart, Chuck Wagner, Ricky Wittenauer, Al Wagner, Denny Karban, Gary Wittenauer, Justin Eckart, Gary Koenigstein, Kevin Biffar, Marvin Gregson, Ralph Eckart, Dale Papenberg & Mel Wagner
2013 Open House- Standing Left to Right, Rich Happel, Justin Eckart, Charles Kujawski, Al Wagner, Adam Wittenaur, Chuck Wagner, Daryl Mehrmann, Mike Karban, Gary Wittenauer & Gary Koenigstein. Kneeling Left to Right, Matt Krupp, Arnie Eckart, Allan Neff, Ralph Eckart & Darren Mehrmann.
