Who We Are
Our History
In October 1947, Edgar Henson sustained serious leg injuries when his trousers caught fire during an early morning butchering. Neighbors rushed to help him, preventing certain death. The following morning several of those neighbors engaged in conversation in the home of Jacob Warrenfeltz. The conversation centered on the necessity to organize and fund what ultimately became the Fairplay Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. The Company was established and incorporated in 1947 by Adrian Diebert, Sr., John Hammond, Roy May, Jeremiah Mongon and Jacob Warrenfeltz. These men, their wives and area residents banded together in building the Company that has endured for 73 years.
For the first six years, the Company held meetings and fundraising events in the Church of God on Spielman Road. The building still stands in Fairplay, with remnants of the original Company name still visible on the front of the building. Fundraising events such as community dinners, card parties, and dances involved work, yet people joined together to ‘do whatever they could to help’, a phrase that still resonates with members.
In 1949 the first fire engine rolled into Fairplay! The Dodge still sits in the fire station, waiting for donations of time and money for refurbishment to her glory days.
Through the late 1950’s Elta Warrenfeltz served as the dispatch operator for Fairplay, Tilghmanton, Bakersville, Downsville, and areas from Lappans to Keedeysville Roads. The fire house phone was located in a metal box, on a telephone pole, at the corner of her yard. When the bell rang, she answered, 24/7 and used a switch (contrived by her husband Jake) to sound the alarm siren on top of the fire station – a siren that is still in use today! Men came from a radius of 3-5 miles in such numbers they all couldn’t fit on back of that Dodge fire engine, so they followed in their cars and trucks to render aid and ‘do whatever they could to help’.
