Big Lake Fire Department

Big Lake fire department was started in approximately 1949 Primarily by Thor Nersten. There were many meetings to get it up and going, with Lyle Robbins and Bill Kromeomen, two of the main contributors. The original 2 bay block building, which is part of the existing building, was built by Ralph and Norm Lindbloom. The building had a small kitchen in the corner with a serving window out to the meeting room. After a few trials a wood stove was used for heat and water was supplied from a spring up on the hill behind the hall. The spring had a wooden box in it with a pipe going down to the hall. The box would get clogged up with leaves etc. and had to be cleaned out every so often. A water heater was installed and the hall was ready to use.

The first fire truck was a 39 Chevrolet that was purchased from Burlington fire.It was not complete and was taken to Herman Young in Montbourne to finish. Herman with the help of the firefighters built a 450 gallon tank for it. The tank had an outlet to go to the pump but no inlet and had to be filled from the top. The truck had a front mount pump that was driven off of the front of the crankshaft. With no hydrants so the truck was either filled at the Montbourne water tank, with a Hose at the hall or with a hose off of the pump if they were drafting out of the lake or a creek. The water tank at Montbourne was above the big lake bar and grill at the top of the hill. It was a raised round wooden tank connected to the Montbourne water system.

The parade truck that we have now is that very same truck.