History

In December 1945, tragedy struck the Township which caused the people of Hamburg Township to look more closely at their community and to take steps toward improving it.

John Moore, the local mail carrier, was also responsible for maintaining the Hamburg Township Hall. The Hall had been constructed over 100 years ago in 1835 and served as the local pool hall, meeting room and as the social gathering place for the community. On that frigid December night, John Moore attempted to light an old oil burning stove and the stove exploded engulfing the Township Hall in flames. 

Previously, fires had been fought by bucket brigades, garden hoses or simply hand-to-hand as neighbors helped one another in time of need as Hamburg Township had no fire department of its own at the time. In the case of large fires, outside help was summoned from fire departments in neighboring communities.

The City of Brighton Fire Department was called to respond to the fire at the Township Hall, however, their fire truck broke down en route to the fire and was unable to respond. By the time other surrounding fire departments had arrived, the townspeople had the fire under control.  John Moore was fatally burned and died shortly after the accident and the Township Hall was a total loss.  

As a result of this incident, the townspeople realized that waiting for help from neighboring communities wasted precious time and that it needed to form its own fire department.

Manly Bennett was elected as the first fire chief and put together his roster of thirty volunteers. It was decided that the fire department would incorporate independent of the local government to save money and that no volunteers would receive any pay for their services.

The Hamburg Fire Department, Inc. was chartered on August 25, 1946 and incorporated the following January. In 1948, the fire department was able to purchase their first fire truck replacing the trailer pumps that were no longer adequate for the rising demands of the Township.

As the Township grew over the years so did the needs of the community. As a result, unpaid volunteers began being compensated as paid-on-call firefighters and Hamburg Township established its own municipal fire department on July 1, 2001 to handle fire and EMS services in the Township. 

Today, the force is made up of 5 full-time Command Officers and approximately 25 part-time firefighters dedicated to servicing their community.