Chief Editor Dave Williams

The Metropolitan Fire Association was formed in Bill Durrett’s garage on Muscogee Ave NW in Atlanta’s Peachtree Heights neighborhood on June 17, 1970. Officers were elected at that time with Floyd McRae elected as Foreman; Ed Milam became the Assistant Foreman. The Secretary was Bill Durrett and Peter Wilcox was elected Treasurer. Department Chief P.O. Williams, Deputy Chiefs Steve Campbell, Claude Lemke and A.P. Black all supported the idea of an organized “Fire Buff club” in metro Atlanta. The first meeting to be held in an Atlanta Fire Department facility was on July 9, 1970 in the Board Room at AFD Headquarters which at that time was at 46 Courtland Street SE.

The objectives and purposes of the MFA are:

• TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY AND SPRIT OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE FIREFIGHTING PROFESSION.
• THE PRESERVATION OF DOCUMENTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND RELICS PERTAINING TO THE HISTORY OF FIREFIGHTING.
• INCREASE KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF THE FIRE SERVICE.
• TO SUPPORT THE FIRE SERVICE THROUGH ANY MEANS POSSIBLE.

Membership in the MFA is divided into three categories:

ACTIVE membership includes anyone interested in the fire service over 21 years of age and who is not a member of a paid fire department. Active Members come from all walks of life including advertising, architects, engineers, police officers, merchandising professionals, insurance, airline employees, computer technicians, bankers, etc. Interest in the Fire Service varies widely. Some collect toys, fire marks, badges, shoulder patches, helmet fronts, fire related books and stamps, written history of area departments, antique fire engines and any other item related to fire departments.

PROFESSIONAL members are employees of paid fire departments who have an active interest in the goals of the MFA through response to major fire scenes, photography or collections of items listed above. Our Professional members represent many of the departments in metro Atlanta including DeKalb County; Cobb County; Hall County; Dobbins Air Reserve Base; Marietta; College Park; Jonesboro; Clayton County; Decatur; East Point; Gwinnett County; Atlanta; Fort McPherson, Augusta, Riverdale and the Georgia State Fire Marshal’s office. There are also Professional members in other states throughout the USA. We welcome your application and participation.

ASSOCIATE members are persons who live over 100 miles from the City of Atlanta but would like to be informed of MFA and fire service activity in the area. We have associate members in many states throughout the country as well as several in Georgia.

The governing body of the MFA consists of a Foreman, Assistant Foreman, Executive Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer and Three Directors. Meetings are normally held on the fourth Tuesday of every month in various metro Atlanta area fire stations. The MFA supports events put on by various metro area fire departments as well as the National Night Out in August and participates in a variety of parades during the year.

Information about MFA activities and a general report on happenings within the fire service in Metro Atlanta is published monthly in our newsletter, HOT NEWS. The newsletter is sent by e-mail to over 200 fire departments and people throughout the United States. Subscriptions to our newsletter are available.

Atlanta was one of the few major cities, which had no provision for awards for valor for its members. Founding member Floyd McRae presented the idea of an Awards Program to the Atlanta Fire Department in 1965. Although the officers accepted the idea, Department Chief C.H Hildebrand Jr. did not accept it. After the death of Chief Hildebrand in 1969, Floyd again presented the Awards Program to new Department Chief Paul O. Williams.

MFA members, as an organized Fire Buff Club have been “chasing” fires for almost 50 years. Many of the photos in department history “yearbooks” are taken by these buffs and in many cases the written narrative has been researched and written by MFA members. Very few other professions have dedicated followers like firefighting. The fact that buffs are on the scene of major fires at all hours of the day and night, in all kinds of weather, helps show this dedication to their hobby and to the fire service. Many exceptional photos have been missed over the years as MFA members have thrown their cameras over their shoulders to help pull a hose line, assist in removing victims, or “plugging” on an incoming engine or running to get equipment. Chief Officers have used MFA members as “Runners” to pass orders to various companies or pieces of equipment. In some cases, due to a rapidly deteriorating situation, these Fire Buffs have been assigned to actually operate hose lines and deluge guns to protect exposures and fight fire. We have changed hundreds of air bottles on SCBA’s and helped companies “taking up” roll and reload thousands of feet of hose.

Through this experience on the fire scene, the club recognized that on many large fires, fatigue becomes critical and refreshments or meals are needed for the operating crews. Although canteen service has always been available from the American Red Cross or Salvation Army, their response was frequently slow. MFA Directors met with Department Chief William Hamer in early 1985 and asked if he would support an MFA operated Canteen operation for the Firefighters. He agreed there was a need for this service. The MFA researched alarms and canteen operations in Memphis, Nashville, Dallas, Shreveport, and St. Louis to name a few. We determined the estimated cost and manpower needed for this undertaking. The membership donated money to begin service.

Later in 1985, the MFA purchased a 1960 Ford Boyertown Canteen Unit from the Box 54 Fire Buff Club in Teaneck, NJ. This apparatus had been custom built as a canteen unit for the Teaneck Fire Department. The T.F.D. is on a 25-year replacement program and even though the 1960 truck was in good mechanical condition with only 20,000 miles, it was declared surplus. The Box 54 club was delighted to see the truck continue to remain in the fire service and supporting firefighters. MFA member Paul Talbott and his wife Carol flew to New Jersey and drove the truck back to Atlanta. MFA members updated the apparatus and it went in service as FIELD SERVICE UNIT 880 on April 1, 1986. Primary response area is the entire 131 Square Miles of the City of Atlanta. FSU-880 was automatically dispatched as part of the 3rd Alarm or at any time eight or more engines were working at an incident. Field Service Unit 880 was later renamed “Rehab 880” was also Special Called to incidents of long duration. During the time the club operated Rehab-880 it frequently responded on Mutual Aid to the AFD’s neighbors. Re-Hab-880 worked incidents in Cobb County, Smyrna, Alpharetta, Roswell, DeKalb County, Clayton County, East Point, College Park, Fulton County, McDonough, Henry County, Jonesboro, Peachtree City, Coweta County, Forsyth County, the City of Canton and Gwinnett County. The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department Communications Division dispatched the unit and neighboring department would call Atlanta Fire, requesting Rehab-880. With this service, the AFD actually again had some “Volunteers” for the first time in over 100 years.

MFA manpower has historically assisted rehab operations on DeKalb County’s “Support Unit-22” which is being renamed ReHab-880 in 2020. We have driven as far away as the Diamond Carpet Mill fire in Chatsworth in 1993 or to other outlying incidents via members privately owned vehicles. Rebab 880 was listed as an available resource for the Georgia Mutual Aid Group (GMAG), and in the Metro Atlanta Fire Chief’s Association “Mutual Aid” reference manual. ReHab-880 has responded to as many as 25 calls in a year and as few as two. With new NFPA Code requirements where fire departments must provide rehab for their members on all scenes, calls for ReHab-880 dwindled in Atlanta with no or rare requests for Mutual Aid. The canteen formerly housed at Atlanta Station 3 located at Phipps Plaza was taken out of service in 2016 and sold to the Georgia Chapter of the Terry Ferrell Firefighters Fund. By 2018 members are now supporting canteen operations of the City of Sandy Springs Fire Rescue Department and the DeKalb County Fire Rescue Department who both have rehab (canteen) apparatus. Some MFA members continue to be active with these operations.

To support the cost of the Canteen Operation, the MFA produces an Apparatus and Shift Calendar. This is a full color calendar showing apparatus from the Metropolitan Atlanta area. When we get good quality pictures, we also have previously used photos of apparatus from Columbus and Athens GA. MFA members go station to station on all shifts selling the calendars beginning in late September. We also have calendars available by mail. These show the 24/48 and the 24/24 shift scheduled. The MFA Apparatus and Shift Calendar has become quite popular on the military bases since ours is one of the few in the country to show the 24/24 scheduled used by many locations of the Federal Fire Service. Fire Apparatus from throughout the Metro Atlanta area are shown on the months and color action shots are on the cover. With proceeds from calendar sales, the MFA has remained in a sound financial condition. Our first year we were in a panic, wondering if we would ever sell the minimum order of 1,000 black & white calendars Our second year we sold out at 1500 and we are now selling almost roughly 3000 copies of the all color calendar per year. Early editions are now considered collector’s items. We have maintained our cost at $5 if hand delivered and $9 by mail since our first edition in 1988.

For many years the MFA has been an Internal Revenue Service “tax Exempt”, 501-c3 approved organization. We are also a registered corporation with the State of Georgia. Donations to the MFA are fully deductible on your income taxes, as they are to any approved charitable group.

When many departments in metro Atlanta, as well as nationally, went to “trunked” 800 MHz radio systems, the days of listening to conventional scanners to hear all the action dramatically changed. Buffs, or “sparks” as they are called, began using pagers to alert each other of fires. This idea caught on rapidly and two of the larger systems now extend from north of Portland Maine to Western Virginia. East Coast Paging and New England Fire Notification Network sound the alarm to several thousand subscribers every day.

The pager systems were set up to let buffs be notified of the action and alerted to a fire while away from the scanner radio, at work, in meetings etc. The MFA began to work with the Mountain News Network of Denver and their founder Jim Richardson. He spent hours on the phone “walking” us through the steps to get a notification system on line in metro Atlanta. In August 1993 the HOT NEWS ALERT NETWORK was placed in service. This involved a system using alphanumeric pagers. “Dispatchers” could then load the PIN common to all of the HNAN members pagers and one send would provide members of working fires, pin in wrecks and other news events both locally and nationally on the pager screens. After putting a system together here, we then assisted in helping Cleveland, Phoenix, St. Louis, Miami, Tampa, Raleigh, New Orleans, Chattanooga, Nashville and Knoxville through the process of establishing pager systems in those cities. By 2020 many of those cities no longer have active buff groups or they have discontinued their paging – notification. As electronic technology rapidly changed most people obtained cell phones with texting capabilities and the use of “pagers” sort of went away as people could get the fire notifications on their cell phones.

In the heyday of fire notification systems, the HNAN was cross connected or swapped major incident notification with pager systems in LA & San Francisco, California; Denver, Colorado, Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis, MN; Washington, DC; Virginia Beach, & Richmond VA; Chattanooga, Nashville & Knoxville Tennessee; Tampa & Miami Florida; Columbus, Ohio; Phoenix, New Orleans, Cleveland, Boston, Greater New York, the four-corners section of NW New Mexico; parts of Kentucky, Etc. As these systems went on line there are very few big fires or emergencies that buff were not aware of as they were occurring. Changes in social media soon replaced the fire pager systems with Twitter and FaceBook Groups which post alarm details and, in many cases, have live video coverage within minutes of multi alarms being sounded.

Although many of our “trading” partners have shut down, the Hot News Alert Network remains in service. It is a co-op type system were member page or call in incidents which are then sent to the HNAN membership and subscribing media outlets. The HNAN is open to non-MFA members so if you are interested, please call our Voice Mail dispatcher number at 404-817-FIRE, (3473) a free call within the 470 – 678 – 404 or 770 Area Codes. Additionally, if you monitor a scanner or have access to working fire information within the State of Georgia, we ask that you call to report your major emergency incidents wherever you are. We need the input for the local as well as the national systems we trade data with.

In September 1993, Department Chief David M. Chamberlin Sr. appointed MFA Founding members Floyd W. McRae and Edward L. Milam III to the position of Honorary Deputy Chief with the Atlanta Fire Department. This was an extreme honor for these two original members.

Following Chief Chamberlin’s retirement, Winston Minor was appointed Chief of the Atlanta Fire Department. Chief Minor was extremely familiar with the MFA having literally rolled hose and worked with the MFA members for his entire career. Chief Chamberlin had requested that the MFA be donated a surplus 1986 Chevrolet Step Van for conversion as a replacement for the 1960 Field Service Unit Rehab 880. City bureaucracy had slowed the process of getting the truck to the MFA prior to Chief Chamberlin’s retirement. Incoming Chief Minor immediately stepped in and assisted in getting the paperwork completed and signed by Mayor Bill Campbell. Keys to the 1986 were officially turned over to the MFA in March 1996. We researched the donated vehicle through several vendors and unfortunately, the chassis was not strong enough to hold the weight of a new canteen. The club contracted with Super-1 in Conyers, Georgia for a new vehicle and sold the former city truck which became known as “880 2B”. The club then operated using a “new” 1986 Chevrolet canteen vehicle which was a great improvement to the tired but faithful 1960 Ford / Boyertown unit. The retired 1960, was the oldest piece of active apparatus of the Atlanta Fire Department. Old FSU-880 was not out of the fire business totally even yet. It was been sold to an Atlanta Firefighter whose family runs a Barbecue business in South Georgia. The truck became what is now commonly known as a Food Truck and was used by the restaurant for catering family reunions etc. providing BBQ and “HOT” wings so it still has not totally left the fire family!!

During the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games held in Atlanta during July 1996, the MFA again supported the fire service through volunteer members working as Venue dispatchers for ACOG, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Field Service Unit 880 was called to the scene of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. The Fulton County Emergency Management office asked us to assist the Federal, State and Local law enforcement officers and officials who were conducting an extensive investigation immediately following the tragic bombing which resulted in two deaths and 111 serious injuries.

The MFA also operated and continues to provide the pager / incident notification system for the Georgia Mutual Aid Group (GMAG). This system was extensively used during mutual aid for the Florida Wildfires Operations during the summer of 1998. Other pager duties we have handled include the rash of thunderstorm related fires in July 1999; assisted during the “unknown hours” as we entered Year 2000 and responded GMAG Task Forces for the huge East Point GA Warehouse fire where 16 departments responded and worked. The GMAG notification system continues to use the MFA set up and operated notification system. This in itself says how important the Fire Service feels the MFA is to their overall efficiency and operation.

For their dedication to assist the Atlanta Fire Department during the annual Metro Atlanta Fire Safety and Apparatus Show, Department as well as other assistance to the AFD, Chief Winston Minor bestowed Honorary Battalion Chief Status on MFA members Chris Clune, Carolyn Ann Larkin and Dave Williams. This was done at Atlanta Station 26. During the annual Atlanta Fire Department Award ceremonies at Atlanta City Hall, Bill Delmar also was made an Honorary Battalion Chief.

Although fire buffing is considered by some to be an unusual hobby, the fire scene photography and the historical facts gathered and kept by these buffs is of extremely value when departments compile history books. MFA Retired Professional Member Bob Gish has authored a very through book on the history of all fire apparatus used by the Atlanta Fire and Atlanta Fire Rescue Department. This book remains available at: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Ashes-Department-Apparatus-1851-2015/dp/1945306076 Bob is currently working on a book covering the Fire Stations of the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department and all eagerly await its publication. In 2018, MFA member Dave Williams and Bob Gish are again assisting the AFR in bringing up to date the history sections for the most current version of the Atlanta Fire Rescue yearbook which was released in 2019.