The Mount Horeb Volunteer Fire Department was organized on December 1, 1890. Its purpose: to provide fire protection within the Village of Mount Horeb.  At the time, the equipment consisted of an 1890 Goulds hand pumper, a hose cart and a ladder wagon.  They were all hand drawn.  The first Fire Chief was W.F. Scott who served as Chief of Department from its conception until 1905.

 

The water supply was stored in what were called water cisterns which were located at various places in the Village.  The members of the fire department worked to keep them filled and this was the way water could be used in the event of a fire.  The FDMH operated with the water cisterns until the first water tower was erected in Mount Horeb in the year 1908.

When the community needed the fire department, there was a steel triangle mounted near the Fire House.  The original location of the Fire House was on North Second Street, just one block off Main Street.  Currently, the water tower sits on the site of the original location. In 1904, the department purchased a large fire bell for $143.00 at the time.  It was displayed atop the Fire House and quickly became the way to summon the department in the event of an emergency. The bell currently is displayed in front of the current Fire Station.  

Prior to 1923, all apparatus operated by the Mount Horeb Volunteer Fire Department were hand drawn.  In 1923, an Oldsmobile truck purchased from Hanley-Reilly Auto Co in Mount Horeb, was converted into an engine.  For equipment, it had a 500 gallon per minute pumper, (2) 50 gallon chemical tank, a hose body, ladders and few other essential firefighting equipment. 

In June 1927 the Blue Mounds Fire and Lightning Mutual insurance Co. purchased in 1926 Stoughton pumper and the Mount Horeb Volunteer Fire Fighters staffed the unit for fire in the country side.  According to records, this is believed to be the first fire fighting equipment in Wisconsin to be used exclusively for fighting rural fires.  With a strong tradition of history, this engine currently sits at Station 2.  

In 1955 the Mount Horeb Rural Fire Protection Association was organized to provide fire protection for the rural area.  The Association municipalities included the Village of Blue Mounds, Cross Plains, Perry, Primrose, Springdale, and Vermont. Again, the Mount Horeb Volunteers staffed apparatus provided by the Rural Association.  Finally, in May 1979 the village of Mount Horeb and Rural Association merged to form the present Mount Horeb Area Fire District.  In 2007, the name of the department was changed to the Mount Horeb Area Joint Fire District to further show the cooperation between all the municipalities. 

The MHAJFD organized the Emergency Medical Service during 1976.  This brought to the Mount Horeb and the other municipalities basic life support  emergency medical service.  Some of the skills the crews initially used included  both stabilization and transport.  The basic life support concept has since expanded to include administration of epinephrine, defibrillation and airway insertion. In 2012, the EMS advanced their skills to EMT-IV Tech to offer a higher level of service.  With the two rescues and many other various agencies on the ground such as Fitch-Rona EMS (Protects Verona and Fitchburg), Middleton, and Barneveld. other resources that exist in the air are Med-Flight, Flight For Life, and React. They offer a high-level of care with transport to local facilities rapidly. 

 

List of all Mount Horeb Fire Chiefs

W.F. Scott 1890 to 1905

Thomas Ayen 1905-1907

F.J. Luder 1907-1915

Olo B. Pickard, 1915-1923

Joseph Chladek, 1923-1936

Ernest Schaller 1936

Banford Dahlen 1936-1958

Elmer Krohn 1958-1960

Howard Himsel 1960-1978

Charles Howard Himsel 1978-2010

Stan Olson 2010-2011

Craig Brinkmann 2011-Present