New Waterford assistant chief still fighting fires at 80

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New Waterford assistant chief still fighting fires at 80
Story By DEANNE JOHNSON, Staff Writer in the Salem News on 4/11/2010.

SALEM -Not too many people are still fighting fires at age 80, but Harry Wilson, assistant chief in New Waterford, remains an integral part of the department.

When a neighbor boy playing with matches recently set the pine trees on fire near his home, Wilson was able to grab a broom and beat the flames down before the fire department arrived. Wilson said he mostly stands back now and lets the others do the heavy work at the fires.

Firefighters in the department celebrated Wilson's birthday with a cake Thursday. Wilson has been a member on the New Waterford Volunteer Fire Department since 1964. According to records dug up by his son, Tim, in the minutes of the fire association, Wilson was voted onto the department in March in 1964.

Harry, who remembers a story about most of what has happened throughout his life, remembers that he never signed up to be a member of the fire department. He did have a couple men, Walter (Jap) Taylor and Kenny Wilson (no relation) ask him to join when he came by and they were out putting up a tower in front of the fire station. Wilson said he turned them down because he was working a lot of different shifts out of town at Republic Steel. But one day two men dropped off a firefighters uniform at his home anyway.

Firefighting in New Waterford often meant fighting grass fires along the railroad tracks in the summer. Steam engines came from East Palestine or Columbiana, throwing sparks from their stacks and setting the grass along the tracks on fire along the way. Wilson recalls a train one dry summer day that set fires from Darlington, Pa., to Damascus leading to every fire department in the northern part of the county fighting fires throughout the day.

Wilson remembers the old 1938 pumper, which was an open cab and freezing cold in the winter.

"You froze in your rubber boots," Wilson said.

He remembers how New Waterford replaced each of its trucks and ambulances through the years. He also recalls when a new fire truck cost the department $24,800, a small amount compared to the $300,000 for a basic truck today. He remembers when an ambulance carried bars, picks, shovels and crow bars, before the jaws of life, the only way to break into the vehicle and rescue someone injured inside.

One ambulance was a gift from the parents of the only New Waterford Firefighter ever killed in the line of duty - Arnold Hammersmith. Wilson said they were at a house fire Unity Line Road and the house had an old chimney without a liner. Wilson said he told Hammersmith to either move or watch that chimney, but he no sooner walked away before the brick stack fell on Hammersmith.

He was wearing his boots, helmet, coat and gloves, standard issue for firefighters then. The department's only ambulance, a hurse, had already been used to transport someone else. They had to wait for another ambulance to come from another town for Hammersmith, who did not survive.

Wilson said the firefighter's parents received $15,000 and they donated it back to the department to pay for a second ambulance.

Donating and helping out the fire department in New Waterford has always been a community affair. Wilson remembers fundraisers by the department and the Ladies Auxillary, including bowling banquets and penny suppers. Nearly everyone in town would donate a dish for the supper, then people would pay per scoop. Wilson said they lined up from the fire department, clear back to the square for those dinners. One penny supper raised $600 toward an ambulance van.

New Waterford bingo early on was 10 cents per card and people were given buckets of corn to mark their cards.

The fire department housed not only the pumper trucks and ambulance, but also the pool table and ping pong table for the firefighters to enjoy.

They held a large street fair in New Waterford the week before the Canfield Fair each year, including some of the rides on their way to the fair. There was also a high wire act.

A beer garden across the street was a favorite place where some firefighters went and it was nearby when the fire siren sounded.

There was not always a fire siren either. Before pagers, before the fire siren, the church bells rang in town when there was a fire. The only confusion happened was when there was a fire on Sunday morning.

The equipment did not always work right. Wilson said the problem with the old 1952 pumper was sometimes you just could not get it in gear. The remedy - beating on it with a rubber mallet.

At one time, the fire department had nearly 500 ambulance calls each year, responding to not only calls in New Waterford, but also in Unity Township, Fairfield Township and even right in Columbiana sometimes. Wilson can vividly recall some of those runs. When the call would come in from Shirley Harrison, who answered all the calls for the department, Wilson's wife, Kathleen, would pull the vehicle around while he got ready.

He can recall many calls taken with John Colella. One with Colella had them heading to an accident near Rogers only to find the back half of a Mustange sitting there. The front half was nearby and appeared it has been cut in half. The terrified woman driving it was clinging to steering wheel and in shock. Colella, who knew the woman, had to convince her to try to move her body parts to see if she was injured. Amazingly she was not. Wilson said Colella was always good at talking to the patient and keeping them calm on the way to the hospital.

The department also once had more fires, about 90 annually. Wilson attributes some of the decrease to the fire prevention information firefghters have provided through the schools over the years.

Before he joined the fire department, Wilson served in the war in Korea. He has nearly as many stories from the war as he does from the fire department. He drove a jeep for the second platoon and ran into Flick Rupert, another New Waterford native while there. He even has an old picture of Rupert and himself, leaning against the truck Rupert was driving during the war. Wilson returned from the war with 30 rolls of film, reminders of another time he keeps in an album.

Wilson said Kathleen always said she wished she had kept a book of all the fires and ambulance calls Harry went on and told her about when he got back. When he was fire chief for about 17 years, she always proofread his fire reports.

Even without that book, Wilson said he thinks he could remember most of the calls if he just looks at the run sheets. Most no doubt have a common theme, stories about neighbors helping each other.

djohnson@mojonews.com