Artifacts from the Jericho Fire Department will be featured in the Local History display case (on the second floor) for the months of March and April. Stop by and check it out.
Before 1930 the hamlet of Jericho, comprised mostly of farmland and large estates, hadn’t much need of a fire department. When small fires broke out, a call was put into Halleran’s Garage and the men in the vicinity would help put out the fire. Serious fires were called into the Hicksville Fire Department.
As time passed, several concerned citizens organized a Volunteer Fire Department for Jericho. They collected enough money to purchase an old garage for their first firehouse. Mrs. Middleton S. Burrill, a wealthy widow living nearby, donated her old 1910 Crane Simplex open touring car limousine and the men converted it into a hose truck.
Today the Jericho Fire Department has two stations on North Broadway and a substation on Cantiague Rock Road. The equipment is the latest in modern technology. The Jericho Fire Department is constantly growing, improving and looking to expand its capabilities for fire prevention, firefighting and rescue.
The source of this information is the Jericho Library publication Jericho: The History of a Long Island Hamlet by local history librarian Betsey Murphy. You can pick up a copy at the circulation desk for a $20 donation.
—Courtesy of Jericho Library
