Charter members of the Herculaneum Fire Department in 1951, all now deceased. Passenger side, from left: Paul Bates, Harold Scaggs, Herb Besand and Thomas Robart. Top row: Eugene Williams, Marvin House, Owen Vinyard, Lynn Johnston and William Litton. Driver side rear: Casey Haggard, Boston Barrett and John Douglas. Not pictured: Elmer Revelle.
On Christmas Day 1947, the Herculaneum Public School erupted in flames in an early morning fire. At the time there was not an organized fire department in the town. Volunteers from around town and St. Joe Lead employees responded to the fire with the fire hose carts but found their equipment and water pressure from the fire hydrants to be ineffective. Despite the efforts of the volunteers and neighboring communities, the school was destroyed by the flames.
For the next few years, several different groups of individuals discussed the possibility of forming a volunteer fire department for the town of Herculaneum. Finally in April of 1951, a group of individuals from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5168 took the initial steps to organize a fire department. The 12 veterans involved with the organization of the fire department were: Boston “Bud” Barrett (Navy), Paul Bates (Army), John “Hoot” Douglas (Navy), Casey Haggard (Army), Marvin “Jim” House (Army), Lynn Johnston (Army Air Corps), William “Red” Litton (Army), Elmer Revelle (Navy), Thomas Robart (Army), Harold Scaggs (Navy), Owen Vinyard (Marine Corps) and Eugene “Barney” Williams (Navy).
Early in 1951, the charter members set out to begin the organization of a fire department, meeting regularly with Herb Besand, the fire chief of the neighboring Festus Fire Department, for training as volunteer firefighters. The members used funds of the VFW post and donations to purchase the first fire truck for the town. The firefighters responded to their first call on Aug. 3, 1951. The Herculaneum Fire Department is now in its 70th year of providing fire protection to the city of Herculaneum.
