Milwaukie Fire Department 1906-1996

For 90 years the City of Milwaukie maintained an independent fire department.  A volunteer force initially, the first emergency responders upon hearing the fire bell would assemble between Main Street and McLoughlin Boulevard on Monroe Street.  The first Chief, Myrle Lakin, was unpaid as were the firefighters.

By the 1920's the volunteer force had been replaced by a paid professional staff and with the completion of the first City Hall, at 21st and Monroe, the fire department moved to that building.  In 1938 the department would again move with the rest of the municipal government to the present City Hall site.  Over the course of the coming decades, several other stations around the city would be constructed and used by the Milwaukie Fire Department (MFD).

In February 1956, the MFD's only on-duty fatality occurred when Assistant Chief Warren Nott drowned in a frozen Kellogg Lake while rescuing a father and son who had fallen through the ice.  The father and son survived but Nott, age 42 with a young family at home, lost his life.  To read an eye-witness account of the tragedy see the Milwaukie Review article below under Supporting Documents.  Today a plaque by the Fire Bay doors at City Hall commemorate his sacrifice in the line of duty.

Throughout its tenure the MFD served the city in times of emergency and also played host to many community and social activities ranging from dances to children's parties and serving as sponsor for Boy Scout Troop 911.

For three decades, beginning in the 1970's, a public conversation about merging the MFD with other North Clackamas fire districts ensued, and finally in 1996 the MFD was merged into Clackamas County Fire District No. 1, which serves the City today.
 

Fire Chiefs of the Town and City of Milwaukie from 1906 to 1996