Croton Falls & North Salem

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I'm just curious how "Croton Falls FD" is called "Croton Falls FD", and not North Salem FD, like the VAC and PD???

Is it because the little village was called Croton Falls, and that's where the FD started?

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I'm just curious how "Croton Falls FD" is called "Croton Falls FD", and not North Salem FD, like the VAC and PD???

Is it because the little village was called Croton Falls, and that's where the FD started?

It did start in Croton Falls with a horse drawn steam driven pumper, and they would pay $5.00 to the first person to show up with a team of horses to pull it to the fire. In the early fifties, the Salem Centre Improvement society donated the first apparatus for the North Salem side of town. It was, If memory serves me right, a 1952 or 53 GMC with a John Bean High pressure pump. The tank size I don't remember. It was kept in the Southern end bay of the North Salem Highway Garage until around 1970 when the North Salem Station was built. That building sits where the old North Salem School was. That building burned down, I believe in the mid to late fifties or early sixties. The North Salem Station was renovated with an additional 4 bays, Commissioners' room, chiefs' office, radio room, ready room, kitchen and a large meeting room.

The current Croton Falls Station was built in the thirties with additions built in the forties or fifties, then the front was added I think around the late seventies or early eighties. The issue of calling it the North Salem Fire Departent has been a touchy subject for years. Although certain members of the press have been known to use that misnomer on occaision. LOL