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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Kensington Calamity

Difficulties in fire service evolution also plagued the Montgomery County railroad community of Kensington. It was subdivided in 1890 as Knowles Station a stop along the B&O Metropolitan Division and namesake of the original land parcel. It becomes Kensington upon incorporation as a town in 1892.

Before the end of 1899, fire protection comes to Kensington when the town acquires a hand drawn reel and chemical cart. They also hire a fire marshal to oversee the equipment as well as organize volunteer firefighters from the citizenry. By 1918, a group of regular volunteers come to be known as the First Firemen of Kensington something of club reliant on the town’s apparatus. On the night of January 2, 1921, the Kensington firehouse an old schoolhouse occupied since 1916 burns to the ground with all records and apparatus lost. This is in spite of a response from Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Department, the Rockville Volunteer Fire Company (precursor to today’s Rockville VFD) plus two engines from the District of Columbia Fire Department.

After, the Kensington Fire Company acquires a new engine and is back in service by December 1922 perhaps from their pre 1916 shed. Soon after, tension develops with the First Firemen who seek greater access to the new engine for training. They are repeatedly denied by the town’s Fire Marshal who retains a key to the station house. On a cold windy night possibly in March, the Kensington Fire Company is called to a house fire in Garrett Park. While pulling the hill up from Rock Creek, the engine runs out of gas. The volunteers push it to the scene and eventually commandeer enough fuel to get the new engine in service. This leads to greater dissention between the town Fire Marshal and the First Firemen.

In summer 1923, Kensington’s First Firemen separate from the Kensington Fire Company purchasing their own new engine that is housed in various members’ garages. In October 1925, the First Firemen incorporate as the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department. Still at odds with the town fire company and Fire Marshal, the town commissioners call a meeting. As a result the Kensington Fire Company is abolished its apparatus turned over to the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department henceforth the town’s sole provider of fire protection.

In the years to follow, the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department expands moving to a new firehouse that remains today as well as growing to four stations the others in Glenmont, Veirs Mill Village and Aspen Hill. It is today within the Fourth Battalion of the Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service. The rest as they say is history.

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