Firefighters celebrate 100 years at Engine 32
From today's Free Press:
Firefighters celebrate 100 years at Engine 32
BY DAN CORTEZ • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 7, 2009
When Bert Johansson was captain at Engine 32 on East Jefferson in Detroit in 1960, the east side fire station was surrounded by homes, factories and a hotel.
Neighborhood children were common around the fire house, which opened in 1909. In the years since Johansson was in charge, the neighborhood has evaporated, but the fire station remains.
“Not much has changed,” Johansson, 82, of Algonac, said this afternoon as he looked around the fire house. “They did change the sleeping quarters. Now everybody has their own area. Before it was just one big dormitory.”
Johnasson was among about 100 former and current firefighters and friends who celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the station this afternoon with food, a raffle and plenty of stories for everyone.
“We didn’t have a dog,” Johansson recalled. “One guy got bit by the dog so the chief said we couldn’t have any more dogs.”
Don Carlson, a fire engine operator who organized the event, first thought about the anniversary when he transferred to the station five years ago. He noticed that the front of the building has an engraving with the year 1908. Carlson, 44, of Columbus, discovered that was the year the building was constructed. It opened in January 1909.
“I’ve been planning since I first got here,” Carlson said. “I did some research and called all the guys personally who used to work here. I wanted to give them each a call.”
The former firefighters on hand this afternoon had a chance to flip through log books that track the engine’s activity going back to 1953.
Vermeulen Julius, 84, was an engineer at the station from 1961-71. Looking up at the rafters, he said nothing much has changed inside the simple red brick building since his days with the engine. But looking outside, to the grassy fields that now isolate the station, Julius said the city has changed around Engine.
“Back then you had a lot of southerners living around here,” Julius said. “It was a blue collar neighborhood, but that’s gone now.”