1930's
On March 10th, 1933, a meeting of 75 citizens of Stonycreek Township was held for the purpose of organizing a volunteer fire department.
Mr. Frank Helsel, President of the Dale Fire Co. was asked to assist and proposed the resolution to organize the company.
On April 21st of 1933, Oakland Volunteer Fire Company was officially incorporated within the state.
The first officers were:
President - Perce Appleyard
Vice President - Earl Griffith
Secretary - Earl Giles Jr.
Treasurer - Kline Ober
Fire Chief - Quint Geisel
Asst Chief - Ronald Hudson
2nd Asst Chief - Clyde Horner
Hose Director - Ken James
Pipe Director - Roy Strong
Initial equipment and operations were at the Eugene Schrader / Green Gable Service Station in a basement side garage.
Our first apparatus was a 1934 Packard Touring Car, previously owned by Charles M. Schwab, purchased for $150.
The vehicle was converted into a hose cart, and this apparatus served us and the communities for 6 years until 1940.
Pictured are some of our founding charter members on the Packard Hose Cart; J.O. Lehman, Ronald Hudson, Eugene Schrader and Mark Griffith.
1940's
At the start of 1940, Franklin Volunteer Fire Company donated a fire siren to us. This first alarm was a telephone arrangement which set the alarm off and the first person to answer would call the Chief's house to get the location of the call.
Unfortunately on June 17th of 1940, the service station caught fire, destroying all the equipment and the Packard stored in the basement as well.
Immediately following this fire, a vote was held to purchase a used 1922 American LaFrance Pumper for 800 dollars.
A new plot of land for a new station was also offered by Mary Bowden & Edward Bowden at this time.
This was the first mechanical pumper unit for us, it was a 750 Gallon pumper sold by the Wilkinsburg Fire Company.
This apparatus served us and the communities for 16 years until 1956.
On August 5th, 1940, the new station began construction. It was completed on April 21st, 1941.
The station was constructed at 1741 Bedford Street, and is where we still are today.
In 1942, we purchased a used 1929 Cadillac funeral coach from Sanitary Dairy.
This unit was converted and became our first ambulance unit. It served us and the communities for 6 years until 1948.
In 1946 we began a new fundraiser in the form of a car raffle. We would park a car on a rotating platform next to the station.
The platform was eventually built over in the 70s by our new bay attachment. This fundraiser was discontinued in 2007.
For Christmas in 1946 we began a new annual event in the form of escorting Santa around the communities.
This is a tradition that we still to this very day perform annually around mid-December.
On August 5th, 1948, disaster struck again as the new station on Bedford street was gutted by a fire.
Personnel were able to push out a heavily damaged LaFrance and still use it to extinguish the fire with the help of 20 other mutual stations.
Unfortunately everything else inside at the time was irreparably damaged and completely lost.
But not to be defeated, personnel at the time still took the damaged LaFrance that same day to the County Fireman's Convention in Hastings.
The Cadillac Funeral Coach was also a complete loss in the fire, heavily damaged and beyond any repair.
The LaFrance Pumper was quickly repaired and still used actively in service until 1956.
Work on rebuilding the station occurred almost immediately, including a new 2nd level to be used for a social hall.
On September 20th, 1948 the first load of bricks began arriving and the new structure was fully completed on December 3rd the same year.
On December 1st even, personnel held their first meeting in the new structure, and then held their annual Christmas party in the new social hall on the 19th.
In July 1947 an order was placed for a new 1948 Mack 750 Gallon Pumper for $15,441. This would become our 2nd mechanical pumper engine.
This unit was originally meant to be delivered the day of the station fire, and as a result was only placed into service finally in March 1949.
This unit served us and the communities an incredible 53 years, until 2002.
1950's
In November 1949 it was voted on to purchase a new ambulance to replace the Cadillac Coach lost in the fire.
A new 1950 Chevrolet Ambulance was obtained and placed into service in January 1950 at a cost of $3,800.
In 1956 the 1922 LaFrance Pumper was sold and a 1957 750 Gallon Mack Pumper was purchased at $17,800.
It served us and our communities for 30 years until 1986.
In 1959 the 1950 Chevrolet Ambulance was sold and replaced with a 1960 Imperial Coach Ambulance.
1960's
In 1969 the 1960 Imperial Coach ambulance was sold to Richland Volunteer Fire Company
A 1969 Cadillac Ambulance was purchased and put into service in place of it.
1970's
On May 5th, 1973, we experienced our most intense structure fire to that date at the Oakland School on Penrod St.
It took our station, along with 9 other stations 6 hours to bring the fire under control, the school was a total loss.
The school bell remarkably remained in mostly undamaged condition, and would later be mounted at our memorial park in the future.
At the start of 1976 we purchased a 1976 Dodge Mini Pumper, making it our 5th fire apparatus. It arrived in early 1977 and was placed into service.
This was our first "mini pumper" apparatus, equipped with a 250GPM pump and Class A foam capabilities. Its primary purpose was vehicle fires and accidents.
It served us and our communities for 25 years until 2002.
In July 1977 Johnstown experienced yet another major flood, causing immense destruction and loss once more.
Due to our position logistically, our station was heavily utilized for sheltering residents as well as supply staging for Red Cross, PEMA and FEMA.
1980's
In September 1980 after several years of extensive effort primarily by our personnel themselves, we completed a new bay attachment to the original station.
This attachment involved 3 vehicle bays, a radio room to act as an emergency operations center, a place for turnout gear and equipment storage and a compressor room for refilling SCBA air cylinders.
The other goal of this addition was to convert the original vehicle bays into a variety of office rooms and a dedicated meeting room for personnel.
In 1981 preparations were made for a 50th anniversary and dedication of memorial park as well as the new station building.
The event went extremely well with a large community and personnel involvement.
In 1984 the old Oakland School bell was mounted in memorial park. It had been in the old Oakland School since it's founding in 1910 up until the fire.
Under the bell was placed a time capsule by former personnel during the 50th anniversary, which is due to be opened on the 100th anniversary in 2033.
In 1981 we traded the 1969 Cadillac Ambulance in part for a new 1981 Ford Wheel Coach Type II, at an end-cost of $25,700.
In 1986 we sold the 1957 Mack Pumper and ordered a 750 gallon Sutphen Pumper Engine for $125,000. It was delivered March 18th, 1986 and put into service in May.
It served us and the communities for 20 years until 2006.
The 1948 Mack Pumper at this time was also taken out of active service and reserved for parades and special events.
1990's
In 1990 we traded in the 1981 Ford Ambulance for a Type III Modular Ford Ambulance and put it into service at a cost of $57,000.
In January 1993 we received and placed into service a 1993 Ford F-350 4x4 as a squad utility vehicle, at a cost of $21,397
It served us and the communities 23 years until 2016.
During 1998 an agreement was made with East Hills Ambulance Service to host one of their EMS units as well as room on-duty EMS personnel for the purposes of helping cover Oakland.
Shortly after this in 1999 the 1991 Ford Wheel Coach ambulance was sold to Markelsberg Ambulance Division of James Creek.
2000's
In December 2001 our new 2002 Ford F-550 Mini 'Attack' Pumper was delivered, and it was placed into service in January 2002.
This was our second "mini-pumper" apparatus, running a 750GPM pump also with Class A foam capabilities.
It continues to serve us currently after being rechassied into a utility in 2016 and then into a brush truck in 2018.
In 2002 we wrote for a DCNR grant and were awarded $5,860.
This grant allowed us to convert our 1993 Ford Squad unit to a Utility style back bed.
In May 2002 an offer was made for our 1948 Mack Pumper.
It was sold to Mr Lawrence for his Museum in Maryland.
In April 2003 we encountered our 2nd large scale fire incident. At 4:25 AM a dispatch was issued for Grand Slam, formerly the Skateland Roller Rink.
By 7:00 AM it had reached a 3rd alarm stage and the entire structure had been largely consumed. It was brought under control around 10:00 AM, but it still required personnel remaining on scene almost another 24 hours to deal with various hot spots.
In October 2003 entered negotiations with Lorain Borough Volunteer Fire Company for them to operate independently within our station.
This was done due to their home station on Green Valley St having critical structural issues.
In January 2006 we sold our Sutphen to Digby-Neck Volunteer Fire Department in Nova Scotia. This money was put towards the expenses of the new Spartan Engine order.
In August 2006 after several years of effort, we took delivery of our new 2006 Spartan CAFS Pumper at a cost of $369,000. $225,000 was covered by a federal grant.
It continues to serve us currently.
In March 2007 we were notified of awarding for the US Smokeless Tobacco Company's Polaris Grant Program.
We were awarded a 2007 Polaris ATV 6x6 for use in search and rescue as well as brush fire support.
In October 2008 we registered with the Office of the State Fire Commissioner to become a Participating Department member, we started our membership as a bronze station.
In January 2009 we experienced our 3rd catastrophic fire incident at Carmen's Wholesale Tire on Bedford Street.
The main structure along with all attached units were a complete loss, but due to the amount of tires involved, the total incident lasted a full two days.
A total of 25 different departments, with 47 apparatus and a total of 271 firefighters were involved in this fire over 48 hours.
2010's
In October 2010 we entered into a fire service agreement with Lorain Borough and merged their fire company into our station.
Part of the service contract was used to pay towards Lorain's Engine 7-1 to buy it, as Lorain Borough owned it.
Lorain Engine 7-1 (now Oakland 6-2) served us until 2012 when it was sold to Huntingdon Fire Company.
In April 2011 we bought and put into service a new Ford F-350 to act as a Squad unit, at a cost of $29,207. Initially named Command 6-4, it eventually became Squad 6.
It continues to serve us currently.
In May 2013 we were awarded a Home Depot grant that allowed renovation of our social hall to include a more involved kitchen area.
In January 2016 we made some notable apparatus adjustments, specifically related around our 2002 Attack Mini-Pumper.
The attack mini-pumper body was removed from the 2002 F-550 chassis and put on a new 2016 F-550 chassis with some modern updates.
The new 2016 Attack apparatus served and the communities us 7 years until 2023.
The 1993 F-350 chassis was sold along with our original utility bed on it.
By way of a $9000 DCNR grant we were able to obtain a similar but larger utility bed along with a brushfire skid, and it was placed on the 2002 F-550 chassis.
In 2018 we replaced the Polaris 6x6 ATV with a Kubota 4x4 ATV and moved the brush and rescue skid unit to the Kubota.
2020's
In September 2021 we resubmitted our Participating Departments registration and achieved a silver rating with 84% of our active members at the time having certifications.
On January 16th, 2023, our membership voted and decided to replace our 2016 Ford Attack with another full size engine.
With our company expanding, acquiring new rescue equipment and becoming more self-sufficient, we outgrew our 2016 Ford Attack, and decided that another full size engine would better suit our needs.
The 2016 Ford Attack was traded in on a 2003 Spartan Rescue/Engine with a 750 gallon water tank and 2000gpm pump.
This Rescue/Engine was placed into service on April 28, 2023 and currently still serves us and the communities.
Also in January 2023, 25 years after the end of our Ambulance services, we established QRS services for the Oakland and Lorain areas.
A key part of this certification for QRS was modifications to squad to add a bed cap for storing QRS equipment.
In March 2024 we were also able to certify our Rescue Engine as a secondary QRS response apparatus.
In February 2024, our members expressed that there was a need to establish our own training facility, due to the increasing intensity and frequency of training offered within our company.
The purpose of this training site was to build the skills of our members as well as better our working relationships with our mutual aid companies.
The OVFC Training Facility was planned and built by our own members. The plot of land was leased from Stonycreek Twp, and is located in the Riverside section of Stonycreek Township, at 398 Traverse Street.
After almost a year of diligent grant writing, fundraising, and using left over funds from the Attack trade-in, we were able to acquire the necessary equipment for our Rescue/Engine.
We finally became a Rescue company on April 30th, 2024.
In May 2024, we sold our Kubota ATV and replaced it with a Can-Am Defender XT HD-10 6x6, utilizing the same skid from the Kubota ATV.