This month’s Perry Fire Minute focuses on a former Perry Fire Department Chief.

Historian and current Assistant Fire Chief Brian Eiteman says Fred Knell helped found the local department.

“There were all these wood structures, so he saw a need to build a bucket brigade.  So Fred and A.W. Otis, who was our first fire chief, in 1878, they decided to get a bucket brigade started.  They literally started with buckets and 15 men and they were putting fires out.”

Eiteman says the department continued to progress from there.

“When he died there was 36 men on the fire department, we had a steam pumper, three hose carts, and a wooden Seagrave ladder wagon.  Because of the big fire of 1898, we had three story buildings and nothing to get up there with.  Fred is who started the hook and ladder company in 1900 and because of that we still have a hook and ladder company in Perry to this day, and we’re on our fourth ladder truck.”

Eiteman will tell us more about Knell and his contributions to the local department on today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program.