06-11-04

Fires seem to have had their roles throughout the history of Onega, before the 1880's and then into the history of Aubrey from its days of the Onega Indians and into the present year of 2001. My words can’t justify the importance of the hardships created by the disasters created by the fires that have occurred during three different centuries of 1800's, 1900's and into the 2000's.

This column has mentioned many of these hardships created by the fires as they were reported by the old Cherokee printing press that was in existence during the 1800's when grass fires destroyed anything that were in their pathways.

I have in my collection a write up that was printed by the Cherokees, the headlines are "Onega Swaps Off Indian Name For Aubrey," the article was written in 1881. It was evident according to the wording that the natives were giving way to the newly arriving settlers that would eventually outnumber them. Most of the natives knew they were not citizens of their own great land and their efforts were ignored or abandoned. The United States government did not recognize the natives as citizens until 1924.

Many times the fire alarms have sounded for the cry for help of our neighbors, relatives and newly settled pioneers that were relocating from the east in a search for a better place to live.

We have listened to people as they come into the store asking questions about the neatly uniformed firemen performing their calisthenics and exercises on a regular basis at the Fire Station in the City of Aubrey. The customers want to know why the public is nor more informed about the many hours of training and schooling that is required of these volunteers.

I responded to one of these customers, "you know, we have a Fire Academy at our station and people from all over the North Texas region come in for training and have been doing so for a number of years."

This comment provoked the customer to continue asking questions about the Academy so I have asked one of the very energetic and highly trained professional members of the Fire Department to give me some information about how the department conducts its training classes. Fireman Roberts is one of the very qualified individuals that I found to inquire about the makings of the program.

His explanation to me was that the Academy has been in existence for a number of years and has been training individuals for a State Approved Certification requirement that is necessary and helpful when the student goes on to become a paid fireman in another fire department.

Mr. Roberts stated that this fire department training school has such a reputation for excellence that he was driving all of the way from Fort Worth to attend the training.

The Firemen and EMT worker explained the school would go on for nine months and that there would be a class graduating with 22 students around the end of June, and a new semester will start up again in October and run for the next nine months.

On March 19, 1963, the incorporated cities of Denton County were reminded by the County Commissioners and the County Judge that the incorporated cities would have to fight their own fires.

At that time, the county which didn’t have a fire department was required to pay $20 for each call that was made out of a town limits. The Commissioners asked the Judge to emphasize that the county had paid $4,140 for fires fought in December 1962, January 1963 and February 1963, and of that $1,260 was paid to the City of Lewisville.

I discovered from an old newspaper article from the Denton Record Chronicle (that was our only new coverage during this period) that a man by the name of Chief Tom Robertson from Texas A and M University came to help organize the local City Council and leaders (my memory does not serve me well enough to mention the names of the twenty-five eager town citizens.)

Chief Robertson spent several nights talking and teaching the Aubrey volunteers during November 1962.

I recall that Chief Robertson continually emphasized that the success of the department would rest upon the character of the original volunteers and that honest and trustworthy people would be necessary to guarantee the success, because the members would be called upon to enter the homes of residents and trust was essential. I do not think that the instructor from A & M could have given better advice to a young group and that same dignity and quality of fine people still exists in the community. If a disaster occurs, the citizens of the Aubrey Area can rest assured that the same quality of people still exists and this speaks very well for the people that still volunteer their time and work on a spare time basis.

I am sure that the Academy Mr. Roberts was telling me about still has that spirit of honesty and cooperation in meeting the emergency needs of the Aubrey, Crossroads, and Krugerville area.

The constant efforts of these volunteers has created the department as it is today and has come a long and commendable way since the days of 1962.

In the case you are involved with an accident near or close to Aubrey, the department will work to prevent the fire from spreading as well as directing traffic around the scene.

My final comment in this column is that if you have need to call them and I sincerely hope that this need never arises, be grateful that we have volunteers available to help us. We should never hesitate to send them a sizeable donation for their efforts whether we live in town or out of town and more especially the out of town residents because this population is substantially less than within the corporate limits of Aubrey.

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