DUKE CENTER – Three 50-year members of the Eldred Borough Fire
Department were honored at a dinner Saturday night at the
firehall.

Each received a plaque with an eagle on it. Making the
presentation was Bob Windsor, fire chief.

Larry Miller, who retired as a principal of Olean (N.Y.) High
School, is actually a 54-year member of the department. He joined
when he was 18-years-old, back in the 1950s.

Although Miller is now inactive, he said “I really enjoyed every
bit of it. I can recall our first rain coats were just plain
rubber, with no lining. They would heat up and be as hot on the
inside as they were on the outside. The helmets were just plastic
with no lining. We had no protection so they have come a long
way.”

Miller said he remembers the first ambulance was a hearse and
after that the department bought a station wagon in the 1950s.

“The only training the ambulance crew had was basic first aid
and about all we could do was put on a Band Aid.”

Miller, like the other honorees, worked on the new firehall,
which was finished in 1988. In the years he was active in the
department, he served for years as the president and also as
secretary, ambulance captain and assistant ambulance captain.

Donald Close, another life member of the department, is also
inactive now, but served many years as treasurer and answered many
ambulance calls during his time. He also worked hard on seeing the
new firehall completed.

Close had owned the Close Lumber Co. at Roulette, which is now
run by his son. He also had the former feed mill at Eldred “to the
flood of 1972 and that cleaned us out.”

Inactive 50-year member George Shields was a fire chief for
years and also was an ambulance captain. He along with the others
worked hard to build the new firehall.

“We had the frame put up, but we did all the inside work
ourselves.”

Shields can recall several drownings and major flooding along
with the fires during his tenure with the department. For many
years, Shield’s operated Shields Lumber Co. of Eldred along with
his brother.

Shields also served for 35 years on the Otto-Eldred School
Board. His activity with the department had to stop after he had a
heart attack in 1988.