History

History of the Moultonborough Fire Department

The town of Moultonborough first looked into fire protection about 1928. By 1930, the town had purchased a portable pump and a 1927 Chevrolet fire truck. Fire protection at that time was under the direction of the Board of Selectmen.

In 1932, a group of concerned citizens formed the Moultonborough Volunteer Fire Department. The first meeting was held at the Town Library. The first elected officers of the Moultonborough Volunteer Fire Department were Robert Lamprey Sr., chief; John (Jack) Oliver, assistant chief; John Randall, engineer; Lisle Davis, assistant engineer; Paul Blanchard, first hose man; Harvey Moulton, secretary; and Ralph Goodwin, treasurer. During the next year, the department felt there should be a station to house the fire equipment. Up to that time, the apparatus was housed at the Harvey Moulton barn (across from the Moultonborough Central School) and at the Lisle Davis garage.

Money for the new station was raised in 1933, and land for the building was donated by Paul Blanchard. The Station was located near the intersection of Route 25 and Holland Street. In 1937, the fire department purchased its first new fire truck. It had a 500 gallon per minute pump and a water tank, and it could carry hose. This was a significant improvement over the truck used at that time.

After World War II, the department purchased a chassis and built its own tank truck. Moultonborough, being rural and having no hydrant system, the fire department realized it was essential to carry more water to the fires.

The next big change in modernizing the department came in 1957, when the MVFD asked the town to build a new and bigger station and to purchase a new truck. Both requests were approved.

In the post-World War II years, the Town of Moultonborough started to grow. People were buying land along Lake Winnipesaukee and building summer homes, especially along Moultonborough Neck. By the 50’s and early 60’s, summer populations would double the number of year-round residents. Therefore, the department decided in the late 50’s to station a fire truck on Moultonborough Neck for the summer months, providing better fire protection to that area. This was a 1927 Chevrolet fire truck and was housed at Leroy (Buster) McCormack’s cider mill. Used until the Neck Sub-station was built in 1962, the 1927 vehicle was replaced by a 1947 tanker. The first new fire truck for the Neck station was purchased in 1967.

In 1951 the Moultonborough Volunteer Fire Department became a charter member of the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid which dispatches fire and emergency medicals services for 36 communities, and 37 Fire and EMS agencies. LRMFA covers, 5 NH Counties, 120,000 people in an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. It dispatches on average 58 calls per day, handling over 21,000 incidents annually.

Moultonborough was the first fire department in the area to provide its members with home radio receivers for a faster, more efficient alert system. In 1967, the department was the first in the region to offer an air compressor system to fill the air bottled for SCBA’s (self contained breathing apparatus).

In 1994, the citizens of the Town of Moultonborough authorized the position of a full-time fire chief to be appointed by the Board of Selectmen upon the recommendation of the Fire Wards. Chief Richard Plaisted became the first full-time chief of the department serving from 1994 until his retirement in 2004 after serving 43 years with the department, 26 years as chief. In 2003 the department moved into the Public Safety Building located at 1035 Whittier Highway, a state of the art facility designed to serve the department well into the future.

In January of 2005, David Bengtson became chief of the department.