A brief history of the Bloomington Fire Department

Minnesota Historical Society photo.

In 1915, Jack Stewart was elected to the position of Bloomington Town Constable. This also made him the Town Fire Department. Jack was given a fire extinguisher and used his car horn as the siren. It was his responsibility to keep this extinguisher filled at all times at his own expense.

In the early 1940s, Bloomington depended on surrounding communities, such as Richfield and Shakopee, for aid in firefighting. The first money was allocated to start up a Fire Department in 1943. More funding was appropriated and by 1946 a Ford truck was purchased for $900. The truck was outfitted as a fire truck with a 250-gallon per minute pump and a 500-gallon booster tank. Many residents did not feel Bloomington needed that much pumping power. At this time, Bloomington was the largest township in the state covering almost 40 square miles with a population of approximately 9,000 people.

February 14, 1947, marked the first organizational meeting for the Fire Department. The meeting was held in Gus Welter’s shop. Arnold J. Friendshuh was elected the first Fire Chief, Gus Welter was elected Assistant Fire Chief. On April 8 of that year, the Town Council voted in Resolution #106, providing for the official start-up of the Bloomington Fire Department. The Town Council accepted the offer of Gus Welter, Roy Donkersgood, Carl Christensen and Bob Smith to purchase the land on 95th Street and Syndicate Avenue for $1 to build a fire station. The Town Garage was used as the fire station until the new one would be completed. August 1947 brought the completion of the first Bloomington Fire Station. Total cost of new building and equipment was $24,000. The first Open House was held October 4, 1947.

In the beginning, the Department had 26 charter members responding to one fire station. They were paid $1 per fire call and $1 per practice drill attended. Payroll was done twice a year. Bonnie Smith, one of the firemen’s wives, dispatched fire calls. She would call Constable Jack Stewart, then Margaret Frienshuh, Eve Furuli and Ev Kelly, who were also wives of firemen. They, in turn, would call all of the firemen to respond to the fire scene or the fire station. It was not until 1958 that the Fire Department went to a 24-hour dispatch system in conjunction with the Bloomington Police Department.

Today, the Department has approximately 140 active members who respond from six different fire stations throughout the city. The firefighters receive $5.00 per fire call and $4.12 per drill attended and also a monthly on-call amount of $65. In addition, they have opportunities to participate in extra work detail and fire prevention activities at a rate of $5.54 per hour. Payroll for the firefighters is done monthly. All of the firefighters today carry pagers to notify them immediately of a call for service. At this point, they respond to the nearest station and staff the trucks. The average response time is 4.1 minutes. Bloomington Fire Department has an ISO rating of Class 3. They steadily improved their rating from a Class 9 in the very early years to a Class 3 in 1986.

Fire personnel perform their duties with the highest regard for the department. Continuing dedication by the personnel to training, emergency response and fire prevention provides the highest quality emergency response service.

For more information, contact:

Ulysses Seal, Fire Chief
Fire Station #1, 10 West 95th Street
PH: 952-563-4801, FAX: 952-884-7678
E-mail: useal@ci.bloomington.mn.us