Kalamazoo’s first volunteer fire company was founded in 1846, called the Kalamazoo Hook and Ladder Company. Over the next few decades, as Kalamazoo continued to grow, so did its fire force. Another company of volunteers was founded in 1850, called Rescue Fire Company. A town clock that included a fire alarm attachment was added in 1855. When the Corporation Hall was approved for construction in 1867, the building also housed fire engines and Fire Department offices alongside other public offices. Since Kalamazoo’s water came only from cisterns and wells, after a disastrous fire in Steven’s Boarding House in 1869, a water supply system was finally built in 1870. Alarm systems were expanded, and the first professional fire fighter company was founded in 1877. In the nineteenth century, the fire department utilized horses to pull their wagons to the site of the fire, with the chief riding in on horseback. With the spread of automobiles and the advance of technology, horses were eventually replaced with motor vehicles with the purchase of the city’s first fire engine purchased used in 1853. By 1973, Kalamazoo had seen 10 Fire Chiefs, with the most recently listed, Chester Douglass, passing away in 2007. The current fire chief, Jairus Baird, was appointed in 2023.