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May 7, 2006 - Today, we mark another important chapter in the 120 year history of the Hopedale Fire Department. Historian Gordon Hopper noted that when Hopedale was incorporated in 1886, the town of Milford gave Hopedale its first piece of equipment – Extinguisher No. 2 that was housed on Adin Street where Judge Francis Larkin and his family reside.
Hopper reported that the first Chief of the Hopedale Fire Department – Charles E. Pierce – commanded a force of 15 men with a total payroll of $500. The department’s equipment included 900 feet of hose, four ladders, and 36 fire pails, and the first recorded fire was a chimney fire on October 22, 1886 that caused $200 damage. Every firefighter was required to be employed by Draper Company. Today, the department budget is larger, the department is better equipped, and – rather than providing job security – the sadly dilapidated buildings of the former Draper facility pose an ever present danger to fire fighters in Hopedale and our entire region. But that is a topic for another day.
As we rededicate this fire station with its new addition, there are few, if any, residents who could recall the town’s first fire station located on Hopedale Street on land across from the Adin Ballou monument. That station, built in 1880, was enlarged in 1889, remodeled in 1908, and used until 1916 when the present station was built at a cost of $50,000. The department has grown to a professional and call fire department today and the cost of the addition is several times greater than the cost of the initial building.
While any fire station is a home of sorts to its fire fighters and may represent the fire service to each community, it is the fire fighters inside who are truly the fire service. Courage, teamwork, honor, dedication and family have always embodied the firefighters of Hopedale. Their heart and dedication towards the protection and safety of the community is unsurpassed.
Years of tradition have guided Hopedale firefighters towards a pride driven organization that is at their best everyday. Few jobs offer the opportunity to save someone’s life or save a family’s home. But firefighters could be called upon to do just that at a moment's notice.
Deeply woven into the fabric of our Commonwealth's history are men and women who served the Massachusetts Fire Service, at times inspiring a nation. Through saving of lives and property, as well as tragedies and losses, the Massachusetts Fire Service has impacted the safety of the public as well as the safety of firefighters around the Nation and the world.
Today, at this re-dedication, we join in prayer as a community to say a prayer for those who died in the Worcester Cold Storage fire and for all of our deceased fire fighters. We also pray, and pledge our support as a community, for those who serve in this station and their families as they perform their duties. Let me paraphrase the words of our second President, John Adams, who offered a prayer to dedicate the White House in saying that on this day, we pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this renovated fire house and all that shall here after inhabit it and work in it. May none but brave, well-trained and equipped fire fighters ever serve under this roof.”
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