Springs Fire Department Hails 50 Years

The Springs Fire Department kicked off its 50th anniversary year with a ceremony on New Year’s Day.

Chief David King, who was sworn in as the leader of the department that day, taking over from Ben Miller, said each of the 89 members received commemorative anniversary badges — though 10 of them ran out in their Class A uniforms to fight fires in East Hampton.

Steven Scholl moved up to first assistant chief, and Peter Grimes was made second assistant chief.

The four charter members still serving were honored with proclamations from the town, county, and state. Joe Fitzgerald, Bruce Baldwin, Mike Collins, and East Hampton Town Councilman Fred Overton helped form the department in 1965 with 54 members. Mr. Fitzgerald, the department’s oldest member at 87 and a former fire chief, remains active in the fire police, Chief King said.

The charter members decided they wanted their own department for an area that was once covered by the East Hampton Fire Department as a fire protection district.

An anniversary parade is being planned for Sept. 19. The department is also in the process of putting a commemorative rock with a plaque at the site of its first firehouse, an old dairy barn on Hog Creek Road that belonged to George Sid Miller. It is still standing. Without a meeting space at first, firefighters would gather at Ashawagh Hall. They didn’t move to the current firehouse until 1967, the same year of the department’s first working structure fire at the Quackenbush house on Woodbine Drive.

Chief King, himself a 41-year member, said it felt special to be the chief during this milestone year. “I have a unique perspective because I can remember the night of the first fire,” he said, recalling his late father, Clarence (Kelly) King Jr., who joined a month after the department was founded and served for 34 years, and his brother, Kelly King, now going on his 49th year, running out the door. “It means a lot.”