The Park City Fire District was incorporated in 1975. But the district got an unofficial start around a century earlier.
Battalion Chief Max Dosher said the first unofficial fire department in Park City — called the Mine Fire Department — started in the 1870s, right around the time when silver was discovered in the area.
“It was probably like a gangs in New York type situation, where they would just run around and fight fires, and obviously they were all miners,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Thursday.
Park City was incorporated in 1884. Soon after, the newly formed city council officially organized the Park City Fire Department. At the time, it was still an all-volunteer force serving a town of over 5,000 people.
Dosher said the fire department helped the town through two catastrophes. One was the Great Fire of 1898, where 75% of Old Town burned.
“It left 500 people homeless. It did a million dollars worth of damage,” Dosher said. “To put that into today's context, we'll have basically a refrigerator system on a building that burns, and it's a million-dollar fire.”
Just four years later, the department dealt with the worst mining disaster in Park City’s history: the Daly West Mine explosion.
In 1902, a powder magazine stored underground at the Daly West mine exploded. According to the Park City Museum, the initial explosion killed two men, but 32 more miners and rescuers died from asphyxiation due to gases.
According to Park City Fire, many left Park City in the mid-1900s as silver claims were drying up. But when ski resorts came to town, people returned and the city saw the need for a more official fire district. So, the Park City Fire District was incorporated as a special service fire protection district in 1975.
Dosher said the district’s initial budget was $63,000 — now it's over $20 million.
“There was only three full-time people working per day,” he said. “Nowadays we have seven ambulances out in the winter sometimes, so there's absolutely no way we could do it.”
Dosher said the modern fire district was developed during Chief Kelly Gee’s tenure. He started as chief in 1983 and served for 27 years. Dosher said Gee transitioned the district into a full-time department and developed paramedic, hazmat, heavy rescue and backcountry programs.
Gee also had the district take over medical response from Summit County.
“For every one fire we go on, we probably go on 100 medicals,” Dosher said. “We're pretty much a medical department, and that's how we're able to have enough staffing for these bigger fires.”
To celebrate the history of firefighting in Park City and the district’s 75th anniversary, Park City Fire is hosting an open house Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 4-7 p.m. at Station 33 on 730 W. Bitner Rd.
The open house will include pieces from the district’s history, including picture collages, old firefighting equipment and a wool Mine Fire Department uniform from 1874.
Locals will be able to try on equipment and see the district’s new fire engine.
