Interviewed by Jonathan Newby and Justin Weaver in the spring of 2001

   

The Seventh Street Fire Hall was built in the early 1900’s. The building, originally owned by PP&L, was purchased for the fire company by the town council of Bloomsburg. This was done to create more room in the town hall for the town council, as well as produce additional room for the fire company.

   Percy Miller volunteered at the Seventh Street Fire Hall for the entire length of its existence. He has helped fight many fires in the town of Bloomsburg, and is still an active member at the fire company.

 

PATCHWORK:  When was the 7th Street Fire Hall built?

MILLER:  We don’t really know when it was built. It had to have been back in the 1900s some time.

 

PATCHWORK:  How much did the fire company buy the building for?

MILLER:  Well, that’s kind of a long story.  The town council wanted us out of the town hall and they wanted to put offices in, so they asked us to come down to the building.  After long debates, lots of arguments, and numerous problems, we finally agreed.  So they bought the building.  Now, what they paid for it, we don’t exactly know. When it came time for us to move, however, they made us an offer. They wanted their dollar’s worth, so we either had to fix it up so we could use it for a fire station, or we had to pay them $10,000, and they would fix it up.  Well, when working with town council, it was really a lot better if you did things yourself, so we decided we would give them a dollar’s worth and fix it up ourselves. First of all, we had to put the big bay doors in, because there was only one small one at that time. There wasn’t any heat in here, either. So, it ended up we would pay a dollar, but then we had to pay the repairs to fix it anyhow.

PATCHWORK:  How many fire trucks were there at the 7th Street Fire Hall?

MILLER:  We had two engines, and then 15 years ago we bought another truck.  So up until that time we had only two fire engines.

 

PATCHWORK:  How many fire fighters were located at the 7th Street Fire Hall?

MILLER:  Membership on the roll… active people at that time… we had over 400. Actual firefighters that responded to a fire, however, were close to 40.

 

PATCHWORK:  What were some of the different types of fundraisers that the Fire Company held to raise money for the station?

MILLER:  Well, we had bingo every night that raised money for us.  We tried other things, but nothing really worked as well as the bingo did.

 

PATCHWORK: What was the reason for moving out of the fire station?

MILLER: Probably about three years ago, we started talking about consolidating, due to the fact that we had a money shortage, no volunteers coming in, and no insulation, which was a big problem and a major reason why we were removed from the fire hall.