Museum is preserving Oak Ridge’s firefighting history
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Retired firefighter David Heck shows off a display about firefighting and emergency response at the Oak Ridge History Museum. - Ben Pounds
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Exhibits at the Oak Ridge History Museum honor Old Chief, a dog who moved between fire stations during Oak Ridge Fire Department’s early years. - Ben Pounds
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David Heck, tour guide for the Oak Ridge History Museum, and a former firefighter, stood amid photos and artifacts showing how the city fought fires in its early days.
Heck, now retired, said he enjoyed working for the Oak Ridge Fire Department for 34 years starting in 1975.
The exhibit focuses on the history before Heck’s time in the 1940s and 1950s, but Heck said he knew some of those founding members. Visitors to the museum will see a 1954 film showing the ORFD responding to a mock fire. A headstone honors Old Chief, the department’s dog who lived from 1939 through 1953. Other items on display include photos, a helmet, extinguishers and more.
Heck said Don Hunnicutt, the tour coordinator, had contacted him about setting up a fire department exhibit.
“We got a lot of things from the fire department. I had a few things to throw in,” he said, adding others made donations as well.
“It was unique,” Heck said of the fire department, adding it had to meet the needs of Oak Ridge when it supported uranium enrichment for bombs dropped on Japan. Many men were at war during Oak Ridge’s first years from 1942 through 1945, making recruiting difficult.
“Most of these guys were not firemen,” Hunnicutt told The Courier News of the ORFD’s first generation. “They hired and trained them to become firemen. They were just raw recruits.”
Others, said Heck, were retirees coming back to work. Harvey Maples, the city’s first fire chief, previously worked as a firefighter in Knoxville.
“He was really sharp; he was the one that set all this up,” Heck said.
World War II posed other problems for a newly formed fire department.
“In those days, fire trucks were low priority,” he said. “I mean, everything was geared for the war.”
So the city used surplus fire trucks, not gaining any new ones until 1948.
The fire department’s dog, Old Chief, would go from station to station. Well loved, he lived to the age of 14. Contrary to stereotype, he was not a dalmatian but a different breed, Heck said, possibly a pointer.
“I was lucky enough to work with some of them,” Heck said of the original ORFD generation. “They did an excellent job getting it set up and making a fire department that was suitable for a town like this with all the hazards that were here.”
The Oak Ridge History Museum is at 102 Robertsville Rd in Oak Ridge. For more information, visit oakridgeheritage.com/ or call 865-806-0390.