League of Women Voters Roseville Fire Department 2003 and Beyond

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INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF THE FIRE T he League of Women DEPARTMENT AND Voters RoMaFH each year EMERGENCY MEDICAL selects a topic for in-depth SERVICES study.At the "Lively Issues" meet- ing of the League of Women Voters he Fire Department of the RoMaFH in January of 2002, and City of Roseville was again at the Annual Meeting in May established in late 1944 2002, the membership voted to when the Rose Township Civil examine how the function of the Defense organization was being Roseville Fire Department might deactivated during the final months change in the future.A proposal of World War II. By the end of recently made by the Roseville Fire 1945, George Reiling (an early resi- Chief was one focus of the study. In dent and land owner) was author addition, it was apparent that the ized to build a fire station addition Fire Department was having diffi to his GMC-Oldsmobile sales and culty recruiting new volunteers. service garage at Lexington Avenue and old County Road C (currently The League of Women Voters corn- Woodhill Drive).According to mittee met with the Fire Chief, the Roseville—The Story of Its Assistant Fire Chief, the Police Growth, when Roseville was incor- Chief, the City Manager, the porated in 1948, there were 25 vol- Finance Director, representatives unteer firefighters.At that time, the from Allina(the current provider of population of Roseville was 4,589, ambulance service to Roseville), of which 2,700 were school-age and volunteer firefighters, both cur- children. By 1957, Roseville's pop- rently serving and retired. This ulation was approximately 22,000; report is the result of a year of there were 22 volunteer firefighters, monthly meetings and background all first-aid trained.At that time two research by committee members. station wagon "ambulances" were This study pertains to the Roseville staffed by 21 part-time police offi- Fire Department and some related cers and the city owned one patrol services.All committee members car. live in Roseville. In 1965, the League of Women Voters (LWV) studied the Roseville Fire Department and Police Department. Notes from the LWV historical file show that in 1965 there were 32 firefighters, all volun- teers. Most of these men lived in Roseville; all were trained in first- aid. The department averaged one call per day. There was one fire sta- tion in existence. Private trash burn- ing was allowed and grass/brush burning was allowed by permit. There was a need for volunteers who worked at night and were at home during the day to be available for calls. History shows that in 1961, the Police Department still League of Women Voter RoMaFH 1 Roseville Fire Department 2003&Beyond