A lot has changed in Marshfield since 1926. The fire department is certainly one of those things.
The Marshfield Fire Protection District recently celebrated 100 years of serving the community, marking a century that has taken the department from a small operation to five fire stations, dozens of volunteers, and a growing career staff.
Fire Chief Michael Taylor said the department held its centennial celebration at the fire station. The anniversary actually dates back to July 26, but organizers moved the celebration to September because of the summer heat.
“We had an excellent event, well attended here at the station, recognizing that huge milestone that the department has been in existence for 100 years,” Taylor said.
Taylor has seen plenty of that change himself.
He joined the department in August 1989 and became fire chief in 2005.
When Taylor started, Marshfield had two separate fire organizations — the City of Marshfield Fire Department and the Marshfield Rural Fire Association. They worked together as one department, but legally they were separate agencies.
The city had two engines, while the rural association operated two brush trucks and two tankers.
“You wouldn’t recognize the department now as to then,” Taylor said.
While the city fire department traces its beginning to 1926, Taylor said the rural association came along sometime in the 1950s.
For years, the rural department operated through annual membership dues paid by residents.
That changed in 2006.
Voters approved the creation of the Marshfield Fire Protection District, moving the rural operation from a membership-supported association to a tax-supported district.
Another major change came in 2020, when voters approved annexing the City of Marshfield into the fire protection district.
A proposal to increase the district’s tax levy failed that same year. The district returned to voters in 2021, after the city and rural operations had combined, and the levy passed.
Taylor said that funding allowed the district to begin hiring career firefighters to work alongside its volunteers.
Today, the department is a combination operation with 44 volunteer firefighters and 13 career firefighters.
It operates from five firehouses. Two are located within Marshfield, and three serve the outlying areas of the district.
Station One on Prairie Lane is currently the only station staffed around the clock by career firefighters.
Taylor said the department also relies on mutual aid and automatic aid agreements with neighboring departments. Those agreements allow agencies to help one another when larger emergencies require additional firefighters and equipment.
As Marshfield and the surrounding area continue to grow, Taylor said the district is also looking at what comes next.
Additional fire stations are part of those discussions, particularly because station locations can play a role in fire insurance ratings.
Taylor said the Insurance Services Office evaluates the department every five years, and those ratings can affect insurance rates.
“We do recognize and plan on building additional stations,” Taylor said.
What isn't in the immediate plans is staffing another station around the clock.
“The need exists,” Taylor said. “The finances at this point do not exist to do that.”
The centennial celebration also gave the district a chance to recognize some of the people Taylor credits with helping build the department into what it is today.
Among them were former fire chiefs Wayne Plunkett and Tim Carlson.
Taylor also recognized Dan McMillan, who served as administrator and assistant fire chief and helped move the department forward as it grew.
Another person recognized was Dr. Sam Alexander, the district’s medical director since 1998.
Taylor said Alexander helped the department build its emergency medical services from what was once almost nonexistent to the advanced life support capabilities it provides today.
Taylor credits that kind of leadership with helping the department grow throughout its history.
“We have had outstanding leadership over the last hundred years,” he said.
From a small city department in 1926, to the addition of the rural association, creation of the fire district and eventually a combination of volunteer and career firefighters, Taylor has watched much of that evolution firsthand.
Now, after celebrating the first 100 years, the district is looking toward what Marshfield’s continued growth will require in the years ahead.
