The Cedar Hill Fire Protection District will celebrate 75 years of service at a community picnic on Saturday, Sept. 6.
The picnic is open to the public and will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Big River VFW Post 5331, 1 Lynn Lane, in Cedar Hill.
Capt. Chris Guse said the district will give out free hot dogs and chips to attendees, and firefighters will provide a variety of safety demonstrations. The district will also showcase some of its equipment and firetrucks.
“We’re going to have our original 1950 firetruck there,” Guse said. “We’re going to have it there next to our newest firetruck. We’ll have the trucks open to show off our equipment, and it’ll show what firetrucks used to be like, and then what they’re like now.”
The district’s most recent addition, a 2024 Pierce pumper/tanker, was delivered to Station 1 last October. It cost $842,870.
The district’s first firetruck, a 1950 Ford F-7 manufactured by the Central Fire Truck Corporation, was purchased for $7,001.50. The truck is still operational and can pump water. It is normally kept at Station 3, Guse said.
Cedar Hill Fire crews, along with members of the St. Louis Sprinkler Alliance, will hold a sprinkler demonstration at 1 p.m. Guse said the alliance has a burn trailer to show how sprinklers are used to put out fires.
Firefighters will hold a vehicle extraction demonstration at 2 p.m.
“We’ll be using our rescue tools, cutters and spreaders that we use on vehicle accidents,” Guse said. “We’ll be using that to take off the doors, cut into the roof, similar to how we remove parts of the vehicle from around the patient so we can get the patient out.”
He said the district will have a “safe house” set up to teach children about fire safety. The inflatable house has a kitchen and bedrooms to help firefighters show kids how to prevent fires and create an escape plan in a burning house.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn from firefighters how to properly use a fire extinguisher.
“The on-duty crews will be (at the picnic), and anybody who is off-duty and available to help will be there,” Guse said. “Hopefully, we’ll have lots of our guys there. We’ve already got a bunch of people who have signed up to help.”
A brief history
Cedar Hill Fire began as an all-volunteer association in 1950, operating solely on donations from businesses and residents in the community.
John Buxton, a shop owner, proposed the idea of a volunteer fire department at the Walter Rose Tavern on May 29, 1950, to a group of local businesspeople and residents. Buxton became the president of the Cedar Hill Community Fire Association at the meeting.
On Aug. 19, 1950, Buxton died of a heart attack, leaving the fledgling association without a president.
After Buxton’s death, his store was donated to be used as Cedar Hill Fire’s first station. While additions have been made to the two-story store, including bays for the firetrucks and offices for administration, the original building still stands. Station 1 is at 6766 Cedar Hill Road, near Hwy. BB in Cedar Hill.
Voters agreed in 1971 to allow the department to become a fire district and approved a tax levy to fund it.