Department History

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Commissioners adopted Ordinance No. 138 at a meeting held in the Hokendauqua. The ordinance officially established the criteria for organizing a fire company and applying for admittance into the newly formed Department. It also established the positions of Fire Marshall and Assistant Fire Marshall. The Fire Marshall must be a member of one of the fire companies, and each fire company would have an Assistant Fire Marshall. The Fire Marshall position paid $15 per year; the Assistant Fire Marshall would receive $5 per year. 

These titles and salaries would be modified on April 1,1941 with passing of Ordinance 381. The positions were now called Chief and Assistant Chief. In that ordinance the positions and responsibilities of Chief Driver and two Assistant Drivers were created for each fire company.  Corporate records indicate the following dates of organization for the companies making up the Whitehall Township Fire Department, two of which were already established when the ordinance was created:

· Laurel Fire Company (Cementon)- Nov. 14, 1901

· Fullerton Fire Company - Sept. 3, 1912

· West Catasauqua Fire Company - Nov. 11, 1915

· Egypt Fire Company - February 11, 1921

· Hokendauqua Fire Company - August 21, 1930

The Fire Chief's since the late 1930s were as follows:

1. Milt Wescoe

2. Joseph Ludwig

3. Terry Kuntz

4. William Balliet: 1972-1985

5. Robert L. Benner: January 1986-March 2016 

6. David Nelson: September 2016-March 2024

7. Mark Bilder: April 2024-Current 

Answering the call...During the 1930s and 40s, to alert members of the fire stations, each fire company had a mechanical wind out fire siren. When a fire was reported, the fire company Assistant Chief was called at his home, he would then report to the fire company to activate the siren. In their absence, the next member on the phone list was called.

A series of siren wheels were stored at the fire company. Reference cards based on village intersections indicated which wheel should be used. This unique wheel device was placed in the siren mechanism. The wheel caused the siren to wind up and down in a specific pattern. Upon hearing the siren pattern, members would know the closest intersection of the fire and respond accordingly. 

During daytime hours, while the assistant chief was at work, the fire company social club bartender would receive the phone call and place the appropriate wheel in the siren.  In 1954, the Township established a central dispatching office for Fire and Police. It was located in a building adjacent to the Fullerton Fire Company on Quarry Street. Phone calls received for emergencies were taken at this central office and the Assistant Chiefs were called at their residence. Once the Assistant Chief was notified, their wife would then call down the list of fire company members to alert them of a fire. The Assistant Chief would respond to the station and sound the siren. From 1944 to 1956, a separate firefighting organization known as "The Smoke Eaters" existed. Individuals wishing to become a member of the Smoke Eaters had to complete 75 hours of firefighting to become a member. They owned their own equipment, including an old Mack truck that they converted into a fire truck. The vehicle was housed in Hoch's Garage in Fullerton although members of the organization came from all over the Township. 

Then, in the mid-50s, a series of barn fires occurred in the Fullerton section of the Township, including one barn on the property of what is now the Lehigh Valley Mall. A member trying to attain his 75 hours of firefighting was found responsible for that fire and arrested for arson. The organization disbanded a short while later.
 

In the 1960s and 70s, improvements in technology lead to the introduction of the home alert loudspeaker box. These speaker boxes, manufactured by such companies as Motorola, Plectron and GE, were triggered by the central dispatch office. Using this new radio alerting technology, dispatchers could now inform members of the type and location of the fire all at once simultaneously. This eliminated the member to member phone calling tree and sped up response times dramatically. Using this same technology, the fire station sirens were also triggered to activate the siren. 

Many sirens by this time were replaced with newer units that no longer used the wheel device. New electronic timing mechanisms in the sirens could create different siren revolution patterns for fire calls, air raids and other Civil Defense emergencies.  The need for the fire station siren waned in recent years with the advent of the personal alert pagers now used by all members. The Hokendauqua Fire Company had the last active fire company siren in the Township. This siren sounded for the final time in September of 2012 when it was dismantled to make room for construction of the new Hokendauqua Fire station.  

One final note on dispatching and radio communications. In the 90s, faced with the State mandated Act 78 consolidation of 911 call taking, the Township reluctantly agreed to transfer all of its fire and police dispatching duties to the Lehigh County Communications Center in Allentown. After 40 years of providing reliable dispatching services for our residents, the dispatch office signed off the air at 11:59 PM, June 30, 1994, marking the end of an era in Township history. 

Diversity in the ranks... In the beginning of the 1990s, seeing a need to improve diversity in the fire department for female volunteers, the Township realigned the process for becoming a firefighter in the Township. Because certain fire companies in the Township did not allow female members, the Township stepped in and removed the membership barrier by requiring all volunteers to now join directly with the Whitehall Township Bureau of Fire rather than with the individual fire companies. From that point forward, all members were now considered volunteer Township employees. This new arrangement also helped with addressing the various legal and insurance matters that come with providing fire protection.  

These days, four of the five incorporated volunteer fire companies of Whitehall Township operate as social clubs. They are no longer responsible for providing fire protection in the Township. All five do, however, they continue to house the equipment as required in the agreement established in February 1909. These buildings are owned by the clubs or individual Fire companies. The Township provides an annual rent payment to each fire company for the space occupied by the fire department.

We thank resident and Township Historian Karen Gensey for all the research and content provided on the early origins of fire protection in the Township.