With the only ambulance in the Central Adirondacks in the late 1940’s, the Old Forge Fire Department responded to calls as far away as Inlet, Raquette Lake, Big Moose, and Stillwater as well as southward from Thendara to Forestport.
Leon R. and Alice Sears Eldridge moved to Old Forge in 1918 and opened the community’s first funeral home in what was known as the Covey Bldg. near the “busy corner.” In 1921, Leon moved the business to the former Presbyterian Church, more commonly called the Echo Bldg. on Crosby Blvd. Two years later, the funeral home moved again to the corner of Harvey St. and Fern Ave. where it remains today. In 1927, Leon traveled to Bellefontaine, Ohio and purchased an A. T. Miller hearse that doubled as an ambulance. It was built on a Nash chassis and had leather seats.
The Town Board approved a one-year $300 contract with Leon R. Eldridge in 1934 for ambulance service. The contract specified that Eldridge had to take the poor people and school children to the hospital, but eventually the Board stopped paying for the service. The hearse/ambulance sustained severe damages in a 1938 auto accident on Rt. 12. This prompted Army Armstrong to ask Alice if it would be ok for the fire department to take over ambulance services, to which she agreed.
The first Ambulance for the Old Forge Fire Department Ambulance Services in 1947.
In addition to planning for a new fire station in 1947, the Old Forge firemen were presented with another major proposal. A special meeting was called on the evening of July 21st to discuss the discontinuance of the Eldridge ambulance service. The Fire Commisioners, Town of Webb officials, and Dr. Bob Lindsay had met a week prior to address the crisis and Dr. Lindsay urged the firemen to consider purchasing ambulance, to which the firemen accepted.
Fundraising letters were sent out to nearly 2,000 hotel, camp, and business owners. Within 6 weeks, the fire department raised $5,526. This was enough to purchase the 1947 Superior-Cadillac ambulance with all of the equipment from Superior Body Sales of Newark, NY for $5,028.78. The ambulance was put into service in September 1947, and the remaining funds were set aside for maintenance repairs. In October 1947 the department entered into a $500 per year contract with the town to transport students from the Town of Webb School to city hospitals when needed.
President Jack Turner announced at the September 1947 meeting that only four men would be allowed to drive the ambulance - Don Beckingham, W. Lewis Armstrong, Brayton Huguenin, and Earl Glenn because they were of the few that had experience with hospitals at that time. Jim Simspon, Elmer Wright, Robert Crofut, Ken Rivett, Ed DeLong, Art Eyre Sr., Leo Burke, and Jack Turner volunteered “to act as riders until such time as they were qualified drivers.” In the days of “load ‘em, and go” attendants in the back of the ambulance were not required to undergo training. The department members took 26 ambulance trips during the first 6 months of operation, including a run to Syracuse in January 1948 to bring home Mrs. Dan Rivet St. and her infant daughter Susan.
1966
During the first few years of operation, the local doctors or police summoned the ambulance by contacting the telephone operators in Old Forge. The operators had the phone numbers of the fire chief and other fire department officers. Later on, fireman Leonard Helmer took over the job of dispatching for ambulance personnel during the daytime. He maintained a contact list of attendants and drivers. In 1967 Helmer was fittingly presented with an inscribed white telephone by Fire Chief Dan Rivett Jr. in honor of his many years of service to the fire department dispatching ambulance crews.
All of the doctors in the area made trips to the city at one time or another with critically injured patients. In 1951, the department joined the Oneida County Mutual Aid System and installed 2-way radios in the ambulance and at the station. The Utica dispatchers were all firemen. In those days, Route 12 was not yet a 4-lane highway nor was there an arterial through the city as there is now. The dispatchers had the lights turned red to stop traffic in all directions as the ambulance passed through the city. Many times the city police were stationed at the major intersections. “It use to take about 40 minutes to get to Utica,” former Fire Chief Robert Pearsall remembered, “but that was on the old road.”
The first Cadillac was traded in for a new Miller-Cadillac in 1951. During the period from 1947 to 1966, the Old Forge Fire Department responded to over 1,700 ambulance calls and took patients to hospitals as far away as Buffalo, Long Island, and Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1955, two department volunteers were stationed in the firehall overnight from mid-June to mid-September to respond rapidly to emergency calls. Topping the list of ambulance attendants during the first two decades of operation were: E. Albert Brussel, John Callen, Lou Cornish, Art Eyre Jr., Sam Herman, Emil Madore, Willie Peacock, and Jack Turner. William Wark made an incredible 339 trips, nearly three times more than another ambulance attendant.
It became the policy to replace the ambulance every four years due to the high mileage. The department purchased its fifth ambulance in February 1966 at the cost of $9,700 plus the trade in value of the previous ambulance. The money was entirely raised again by donations. Stage actress Rose Stahl contributed $1,000 during the 1953 fundraiser and was made an honorary lifetime member of the fire department. Ms. Stahl was the wife of Ollie Alger whose family owned Alger Island in Fourth Lake at that time. Summer residents were especially generous, in particular Albert. C. Bostwick, a member of the Adirondack League Club. He was the first to donate stock that helped to establish an ambulance investment portfolio managed in the early years by William Wark. According to former President Art Eyre Jr., Mr. Bostwick’s appreciation for the fire department’s work stemmed from witnessing a recovery of a little girl’s body - the victim of an accidental drowning in a creek near the south branch of the Moose River on Club property.
In September of 2020, the membership of the Corps voted to buy the Muffin Patch property located on Route 28 next to DiOrios IGA. With access to both Main Street and Pullman Ave. this location will allow OFVAC the space it needs to house their ambulances, equipment, and volunteers. Learn more about this new location below.