History of the fire service in the Town of Laurenville.
The Town of Laurenville was established in 1807. It was predominately a mill town where the villages grew around the mills. The mills thrived throughout the 1800's with only the occasional, yet usually devastating fire slowing them down. During this time the only fire protection these mills had were the fire brigades set up by the mill consisting of workers from the mill.
In 1890 the first organized fire department was established in the Markoag village of Laurenville. The Markoag Fire District not only protected the mills, but all of the buildings in its district. Four years later the village of Nathanville followed suit and created the Nathanville Fire District. This proved to be the beginning of a new era of fire service in the town.
In 1899, with the establishment of the Mt. Evans Ski Area on Mt. Evans only a few years eariler, and the subsequent building of mountian "homes", a group of moutaineers formed the Mt. Evans Fire Company, protecting Mt. Evans and its surrounding area. 1908 brought the first organized fire service to the eastern part of the town when the Randallville Fire District formed. RFD at the time protected not only Randallville village, but also the village of Claytonville, and the village of Mullen and its Mullen Field landing strip.
Nothing changed in Laurenville's fire service until 1927, when the people of Edgewood, after always having to worry about which of the surrounding fire departments would come to their aid when needed, formed the Edgewood Fire District.
Again almost two decades of no changes followed. It wasn't until 1945, after Mullen Field became Mullen Airport, and small plane air traffic became more than what Randallville Fire District could handle, the Mullen Fire District was established to protect the airport and its surrounding area. The six fire districts, Markoag, Nathanville, Mt. Evans, Randallville, Edgewood, and Mullen would remain independent from each other for another 33 years.
In 1978 a tread was started that wasn't finished until 2007. The first change in service happened when the Markoag Fire District and Mt. Evans Fire Co. merged, keeping the Markoag name. Also merging the following year was the Randallville and Mullen Fire Districts, using Randallville as its name due to its longer history. That same year the Nathanville Fire District opened a second station in the south side of the district located near the newly built Highway Rt. 108, and also near many lakes. The lake proximity lead to the new station being referred to as the "Lakeville Station". At the close of the 1970's there was 4 fire districts operating out of 7 stations.
Eighteen years followed before any more changes occured. During this time the volunteers started receiving stipends based on the amount of runs they made. They would now be called paid-on-call firefighters. Also some districts hired a small number of full time firefighters to supplement the paid-on-call's and also for any administrative duties needed. And after five years of discussion, the Randallville Fire District agreed to take over aircraft rescue firefighting services for Mullen Airport in 1993.
In 1996 the use of the name Laurenville Fire District began when the Nathanville and Randallville Fire District's merged. With this merger the now 3 fire districts decided to renumber all the their apparatus and stations in order to reduce redundency. The Markoag district took the number 1 for the Markoag station as it was the towns first fire district, and 5 for the Mt. Evans station. The new Laurenville district took the number 2 for the Nathanville, the second district in town, number 3 for the Randallville station, 6 for the Mullen station, and 7 for the Lakeville station. That left number 4 for the Edgewood district. Edgewood Fire District would see the writing on the wall and merge into the Laurenville Fire District four years later in 2000.
2007 saw the final piece of the town wide fire district become reality when the Markoag and Laurenville Fire District's merged. The Laurenville Fire District now consists of:
Station 1: Markoag, Station 2: Nathanville, Station 3: Randallville, Station 4: Edgewood, Station 5: Mt. Evans, Station 6: Mullen, Station 7: Lakeville. A new headquarters station has opened in Nathanville. It is designated station 2.