About a year and a half ago, Ozzie Blow was sitting in a regular meeting of the Malta Ridge Volunteer Fire Co. when he heard that old photos related to the company were not only disorganized but just lying around on the floor of the building.
Blow volunteered to pull the photographs together and preserve them. That small act has since snowballed into a project that he hopes will culminate in a detailed history of the Malta Ridge Volunteer Fire Co. with those very pictures supplementing his written words.
The research I’m doing is the history of our past, said Blow, who has been a member of the fire company since 1967. `A lot of it is lost. Now is the time to write it down and put it in book form.`
Blow said he has scores of paperwork at home in two 4-foot rows of binders that he goes through regularly. Lately, he said, he has been focused on reviewing the meeting minutes of the company and summarizing them. At this time, he has completed that process through 1980.
`At first people ignored me,` said Blow. `But once they saw what I was doing, a lot of stuff began to come through.`
He said people have handed him boxes of their own memorabilia, helping him tremendously in his search for information about the early days of the department.
Blow said his research has provided him with interesting reading. He has learned that the first meeting of the fire company was held on the steps of the Malta Ridge Common School, a one-room schoolhouse, in 1948. The company formed using money provided by its members. The money was used to purchase its first fire truck, which was parked behind an area business.
For several years, the company was funded solely on membership dues and fines. Blow said dues were listed as 50 cents a month for members. Members who missed fires paid a 50 cent fine for each fire missed, and those not attending a funeral were fined $1. It was not until 1950 that the town of Malta entered into its first contract with the Malta Ridge Fire Co.
`They worried how they were going to pay the bills,` said Blow. `They owed money out that first year.`
Ideally, Blow would like to have his finished product serve as a means of preserving the Malta Ridge Fire Company history as well as a point of reference for newer members.
Early planning for the book includes some of the chapters being dedicated to the original charter members, presidents and chiefs, firehouses, and the women’s auxiliary.
`Back in the early days, the fire company was the center of town,` said Blow. `Malta’s gotten so big that the fire company is no longer the center of activities.` Those activities included community functions, banquets, parties, parades and competitions.
Blow’s research has included interviews with some of the charter members and previous chiefs.
Blow said he welcomes anyone to contact him with stories of the company’s past, and he is in need of photographs of Malta Ridge Volunteer Fire Co. members and events prior to 1970. A good find, he said, would be a photograph of the 1932 Chevrolet Fire Truck. Other early photos he would like to see would be of the presidents and chiefs who held office before 1970, the early firehouses and the Willy Garage. Photographs of original charter members and the women’s auxiliary groups, as well as newspaper clippings, would also be valuable to his research.
`I will make copies of the photographs and give them back to the owners,` said Blow.
People with information to offer can contact Blow at 885-4659. He said he expects the project to take a few more years before it is complete. He will offer a brief glimpse into his research in a written piece for the Malta Memories book project being spearheaded by town historian Teri Ulrich. The deadline for submissions for the book featuring the life and history of the town of Malta is drawing near, and a published version is expected to be available in 2007. “
