Fire District #1: Hoffman's
- At a meeting held on August 6, 1925, at the Hoffmans School, citizens voted to create a new fire district, District No. 1. Also elected at this meeting were the first fire commissioners, J.E. Van Eps, L. Carter, R. Craft and F. Snowden (treasurer).
- At a meeting held August 18, 1925, the commissioners appropriated $500 to purchase a 40-gallon hand drawn chemical tank from Boyer Fire Apparatus Co. The equipment, delivered in October, owned by the department for many years. Frank Giglio’s barn became the home of this tank until the first fire station was built two decades later.
- The first fire alarm was a rim from a locomotive wheel mounted on a frame and struck by a sledgehammer. It was guaranteed to wake even the soundest sleeper. The first alarm was to a truck fire on April 17, 1926.
- The fire department initially had 25 members. Frank Giglio was named Chief, T. Christ was the assistant chief, and J. Swart was president. Monthly meetings were held at the Hoffmans School.
- In November 1929, at a public meeting, the first commissioners voted to purchase a new fire truck. Representatives of 5 different truck companies were present. J.E. Van Eps, L. Carter, and P. Giglio voted to purchase a Ford 4-cylinder truck from the Buffalo Fire Apparatus Co., which cost $2150.50. The truck was delivered on April 10, 1930. Another truck was purchased in 1946 from the U.S. government, which was rebuilt in 1957.
- In 1949, Helen Van Eps Hatcher donated land on Wolf Hollow Road to build the first fire station and only in Hoffmans.
- Because the fire district encompassed such a small area, only one square mile, and serving only 44 homes, it was one of the smallest fire districts in the United States. In 1972, the department responded to 10 brush fires and no house fires.
- Due to the fire district’s small size, the fire tax rate was far more expensive than neighboring districts. In 1993, the fire tax rate was $5.04 per $1000 of assessed value. Because of this, 33 residents petitioned the town to dissolve the district, and split the district between the West Glenville and Rectors Fire Districts. The district was officially dissolved on April 10, 1993.
- On April 1, 2020, the Glenville Town Board voted to relinquish the property donated in 1949 back to Helen Van Eps Hatcher’s heir, Dirck Roger Van Eps, as the property on Wolf Hollow Road had not been used since the fire district dissolved nearly 17 years earlier.
- The one small claim to fame for Fire District No.1 is that they received a letter from President Richard Nixon dated May 3, 1972, stating that the “assistance to the [National] Commission [on Fire Prevention and Control] in this vital field reflects their own dedicated efforts on behalf of effective fire prevention measures.”