The Irving Fire Department began as a volunteer force in the early 1920s. It remained an all volunteer force for just over 30 years. The city grew rapidly during the 1950s and, in order to meet the needs of the growing community, hired its first fire fighter in 1953. Through the decades the department has grown along with the city.
There is uncertainty as to whether the volunteers were formed in 1921 or 1925. Oral history indicates it was 1921, but the first written record of its existance dates to 1925. What is known for certain is that the group was formed at a meeting held in R.V. Leach’s hardware store on Main Street at which Mr. Leach was elected first chief of the volunteers. The state fire insurance board recommended that a city of Irving’s size needed a volunteer force of twenty. The ranks were readily filled by eager residents.
Early equipment included a four-wheeled pull-cart with a hand-operated pump and a 20-gallon water tank mounted on it. Other equipment included brooms, buckets, a gunny sack, an axe and a small ladder.
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The Irving Volunteer Fire Department, 1934.
This article from the 1930s announces a fundraising picnic. It also mentions that the city gave the volunteer fire brigade $19 per month.
To pay for equipment the volunteer fire department members sponsored various types of fundraisers. Raffles and picnics were favorites. In 1926 the group purchased their first piece of motorized equipment; a 1919 Model T Ford truck on which they installed a hand-pump, a water tank, a hose bed and side boards on which the firemen could stand.
The Irving Volunteer Fire Department took part in a firefighters skill competion sponsored by the Mesquite Volunteer Fire Department. Irving's team placed first out of seven competing area volunteer fire departments.
As a way of building comraderie and to hone their abilities, volunteer fire departments from around the area took part in friendly competitions in firefighting skills.
Volunteer fireman C. E. Range soon to be named Irving's postmaster.
Carl Range was captain of the volunteers during the late 1930s. Range opened a gas station with his brother in Irving in 1919. He later became Irving's postmaster and served in that position from 1939-1956.
The Irving volunteer firefighting team wins first place at the pump races for the fourth consecutive year. Fourteen volunteer fire departments competed in the event that was held at Fair Park in Dallas.
Through the years the department upgraded their equipment as money allowed. In 1936 the volunteers purchased an REO fire truck from the Mineral Wells Fire Department. In the early 1940s they bought a 1936 Chevrolet fire truck that had a 500 gallons per minute pump and a 250 gallon water tank that was used for grass fires. The city hall building only had one fire truck bay, so the grass truck was kept out behind the building under a tree.
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The Irving Volunteer Fire Department poses in front of truck, c. 1940s.
Although the city of Irving was founded in 1903 and incorporated in 1914, it did not have a city hall building until 1932. The building was shared by the Dallas County Fresh Water Supply District and the city's offices and contained a bay for the volunteer fire department's fire engine.
The 1950s saw Irving grow from a small town of 2,000 at the beginning of the decade into a booming suburb that had a population of 45,000 by the late 1950s. The city government had to make changes in order to provide services, such as adequate fire protection, for Irving's residents. During this decade the volunteer fire department transitioned into a professional city department. In 1953 Irving hired its first full-time fireman and its first Fire Marshall. Four additional firefighters were hired in 1954. For a time the fire department was a mixture of volunteers and paid staff members.
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Fire Marshall Pistoll Mitchell is standing on the right side of the photo wearing a white hat.
James D. "Pistol" Micthell grew up in Irving during the 1930s. As an adult he joined the Irving Volunteer Fire Department. In 1953 he was hired by the city as its first Fire Marshall. He served in that capicity for 30 years before retiring in 1983.
Fire Marshall, Pistol Mitchell, in center, and members of the volunteer fire department, receive an award at a pump races competition.
During the 1960s and 1970s the Irving Fire Department sponsored an annual Miss Flame contest. In this photo, the Fire Marshall, on right, poses with the winner of Irving's Miss Flame contest, 1960.
The volunteer fire department extinguished a blaze at a local business that expressed its gratitude by presenting the squad with a cake, 1955.
In 1953 the city added four bays onto the city hall building to house the growing number of fire trucks now owned by the professionalizing fire department. Soon after, a second story was added above the bays to serve as living quarters for the firefighters.
E. F. Cronan was hired as Irving's first fire chief in 1955. In this photo Chief Cronan is standing on the far right. To his right is Pistol Mitchell, Fire Marshall.
Some of Irving's first paid firefighters came from the ranks of the volunteers and some from the outside. As vacancies occurred in the volunteer group, they were not filled and by 1958 the volunteer organization was dissolved.
Volunteers gather for a dinner. By the late 1950s the volunteers had been replaced by a professional fire department.
During the late 1950s the Fire Department began adding fire stations to keep up with the expanding city. Until 1956 the city was served by a single fire station that was a part of the city hall building, but in the 1950s and 1960s the city grew rapidly to distances too far to be adequately served from the single city hall/fire station. The city added new stations in 1956, 1957 and 1960. In 1967, in addition to adding a new station, firefighters' duty went from 24 hours on and 24 hours off to 24 hours on and 48 hours off. Implementing the new schedule meant doubling the number of firefighters.
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In this photo from the mid-1960s, firefighters and the Fire Marshall pose by a truck at Station 3 which opened in 1957.
A firefighter practices maneuvering the boom on the snorkel fire truck, c. 1969.
A firefighter, who jumped from the training tower, is captured by this photo in mid-air as his fellow firefighters work on rescue skills, c. 1969. The training tower was located on Esters Road north of Highway 183.
Members of the Irving Fire Department work on ladder skills at the training tower.
A firefighter works to keep the engine in top shape, c. 1969.
On Saturday, August 1, 1970, a fire erupted at the Humble Oil and Refinery Company on Highway 183 near Carl Road. The risk of a massive oil storage tank explosion was very real.
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The fire started when a pipeline on the fuel-loading dock ruptured spewing gasoline into the air. The wind blown gas vapors ignited into a ball of flame when they came in contact with a running truck engine. Two men standing near the truck suffered severe burns. Nearby neighborhoods were evacuated and the highway was closed for fear of the fire causing one of the massive storage tanks at the site to explode.
The Irving Fire Department dispatched four fire engines and two trucks to the scene. It took them an hour to get the fire under control. At one point, the flames came within fifty feet of one of the large fuel storage tanks before being contained.
Irving did not have a truck that carried fire retardant foam at the time, so the Dallas Fire Department sent a foam truck to the scene.
The refinery's repair shop was severly damaged by the fire.
The fire damaged the plant's fuel-loading stand and equipment repair shop and destroyed six fuel tanker trucks.
Firefighters inspect the area around the repair shop after the fire was exhinguished.
One of the six fuel tanker trucks that was damaged in the fire.
Two company employees were credited with helping to minimize damage by closing the valves feeding fuel to the broken line and shutting down the electrical power to the plant. The Irving Batallion Chief credited the Dallas Fire Department foam truck with containing the blaze around the leak while the Irving firefighters attended to the collateral fires.
Irving Fire Department Chief, Assistant Chief, Battalion Chiefs, and Fire Marshal, c. 1972.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the Fire Department added stations as the city grew. In 1984 the Central Fire Station, that was part of the original city hall building, was closed as an active station, but remained the department's administrative headquarters. The original city hall/fire station building, although closed to the public, still stands today.
Irving opened a police and fire training academy on Esters Road in 1988.
In October of 1993 a fire broke out in one of the suites in Texas Stadium. Fortunately, it was not during a game. The Irving Fire Department responded and contained the potential disaster.
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A Dallas Cowboy cheerleader reported a fire in a Texas Stadium luxury suite at 5:53 p.m. on Wednesday, October 13, 1993.
Forty-five members of the Irving Fire Department responded to the alarm.
The fire spread to the level of suites below those first engulfed in flames.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze.
Working to control the fire.
The fire spread down to a few rows of seats. It took approximately 90 minutes to "knock down" the fire and fire personnel were on the scene until 11 p.m. that night to make sure there was no rekindling of the fire. A game was played the following Sunday in the stadium.
In 2000 the Irving Fire Department moved its headquarters from the old city hall building to a new location in what had been the Irving Police and Courts Building at 845 W. Irving Blvd. The department still makes its home there in 2021.
In 2017, the cities of Irving and Grand Prairie opened a joint training facility at 4850 N. Belt Line Road.
The Irving & Grand Prairie Joint Training Facility.
As of 2021 the Irving Fire Department employees over 300 firefighters, operates 12 stations, a public education station, its administration building and the Irving & Grand Prairie Joint Training Facility.
