Fiskeville Fire Co.

     Fiskeville Fire Company

   Click on images to enlarge.

     Surviving records for the Fiskeville Fire Company indicate it was was organized on July 10, 1900, and the uniform patch once worn by company members clearly states the company was organized in the year 1900.  However, two small news items which appeared in the now defunct newspaper, The Providence News, recently discovered in November of 2022, indicate that the company can trace its roots to 1891 0r 1892.  The reason for the discrepancy can be found in a company history written by Thomas J. Scott in 1975 titled “Fiskeville Fire Company – The First 75 Years”.  Mr. Scott wrote that the fire company made its first attempt at organizing in 1891, and a report of the meeting minutes appeared in a West Warwick newspaper known as the “Gleaner”.  “For reasons unknown”, Mr. Scott wrote, “that organization dissolved within a short period of time.”   

     After reincorporating in 1900, the company’s first fire chief was Everett F. Fiske, who was born in Fiskeville in 1878, and was responsible for establishing the department. Chief Fiske served with the fire company for 63 years, but not all of them as chief, before retiring in 1963. He passed away in October of 1969 at the age of 91, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Coventry.

     Another chief of the department was Robert Joslin, a 27-year veteran of the company. He served as chief for fifteen years.

     Chief Norman A. Picard replaced Chief Joslin in 1966, and served as such into the 1970s.

     The fire company’s first home was a barn, and its first piece of fire fighting apparatus was a hose reel kept in a small garage which served as the company’s first fire station.

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     In 1905 the Company founded the Fiskeville Veteran Fireman’s Association, which later became known as the Pawtuxet Valley Fireman’s League.  The name was later changed again to the Pawtuxet Valley Firemen’s Association on January 30, 1915, and changed yet again to the Pawtuxet Valley Firemen’s League in 1928. 

     The Fiskeville Fire Company responded to its first fire on the night of November 22, 1900 when a shed located near the Jackson Mill caught fire.  Eight members responded with the hose reel.    

     One of the largest fires the company responded to occurred on the night of February 8, 1914, when a cotton mill in Fiskeville burned to the ground. 

     In 1922 the company set a new record using the hose reel at a fireman’s muster at the Pawtuxet Valley Fair, and in later years won the Rhode Island Firemen’s League Flag three times.

     On August 22, 1924, the Fiskville hose reel team attended a muster at Savin Rock, Connecticut, and won second prize in the hose reel contest under the leadership of Captain Willis Rathbun.

     In 1926 Robert L. Knight donated a second-hand, six-cylinder, White truck chassis to the company which was later brought to the Combination Ladder Company of Providence to be converted into a pumper truck.  The total cost was $2,800.  The truck served until August of 1935, when the engine broke a connecting rod which penetrated the crank case.  It was replaced by a second-hand 1926 REO truck which still exist today and is displayed at the Cranston Volunteer Firefighters Museum.        

     In 1927 the Fiskeville Fire Company set another record at the Savin Rock Fire Muster.  Click here here more info. 

       The Village of Fiskeville borders the towns of West Warwick and Coventry, and as such, Fiskeville firemen were called on occasion to battle fires in those communities. Perhaps the biggest fire the company ever responded to outside their jurisdiction was the Natick Mill fire on July 3, 1941.

      Another major fire occurred at the Fiskeville Fairgrounds in 1934.  Click here for more info. 

     In October of 1950 the company purchased a 1933 fire truck from the Oak Lawn Fire Company for $250.  It was designated as Engine 9. 

     In March of 1970 the fire company obtained a new fire truck specially designed for rural areas, with a 500 gallon water tank, a high off-the-ground chassis, positive traction rear wheels, for woodland firefighting, and a tight turning radius for narrow roads. It was built by the Farrar Company of Woodville, Massachusetts, at a cost of $9,000.  It went into service on March 10th as Fiskeville Engine 9. 

     According to a newspaper article which appeared in The Evening Bulletin on December 22, 1964, the fire company moved into the station pictured above in 1949.  The land was owned by the Arkwright-Interlaken Co. just over the city line in Coventry.  The mill owners purchased a barn and had it moved to the site and converted into a fire station.  The fire company leased the building for a dollar a year until December of 1964, when the mill owners decided to give title of the land and building to the firemen.  The transfer was done at a luncheon held at the Colony Inn in Edgewood.   

Department Insignia

Car Emblems

     Cast aluminum emblems such as these were attached to a fire company members private vehicle to identify its owner as a member of the company.  Sometimes volunteers would respond directly to the scene of a fire and be forced to park in the area.  These emblems, usually  positioned just above the front license plate, let police officers know that the cars belonged to firefighters.   

Miscellaneous Items

Chiefs