The History of the Lake Saint Louis Fire Protection District
Scarcely a couple of dozen homes had been constructed around a small lake and the few streets that lead to these homes are still gravel. A small, specialized community is being born in western St. Charles County just off a new interstate highway in 1969. It may seem hard to believe, but that was all there was of our city just over thirty years ago.
As R.T. Crow formed this new community, he recognized the need for essential services as growth occurred. Naturally, one of these essential services was to protect these new homes in the event of fire. With the nearest fire stations located in O’Fallon to the east and Wentzville to the west, a brand new volunteer fire fighting force was needed and assembled from 6 men in Lake Saint Louis. The Lake Saint Louis Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1969 – the newest fire department in St. Charles County.
Because the fire department is so young, many of the founding fathers are still with us – some still active in the fire department or living in our community. I was fortunate enough to meet with former Fire Chief Ed Whitney to talk about what it was like to start the fire department. Looking at what our fire department has evolved into today, the beginning, according to Chief Whitney, was very humble.
“We fought our first fire out of the back of my pickup truck!” states Whitney. “There were only about 6 of us on the force when we started in 1969. We bought our own coats, boots, and hard hats (not fire helmets).” Back when the volunteers organized there was no firehouse or fire truck. Being the resourceful firefighters, they shortly thereafter “borrowed” a fire truck from a fire equipment supplier. They also borrowed space to park this truck. In 1969 the Chapel of the Lake Church was located at the corner of Cognac and Rue Grand. The church shared some garage space with the volunteers to park their fire truck.
During the early years of the fire department, it was essential that all organizations in the community work together. And united they stood for the development of Lake Saint Louis as we know it today. For instance, the Community Association, of which the C.A. manager was one of the original volunteers, purchased the first fire department 500 gallon per minute (gpm) pumper truck. The volunteers "borrowed" the pumper from the C.A. because at this time the fire department had no revenue and was unable to purchase even basic firefighting equipment such as boots and helmets much less a fire truck. Working together, the church and Community Association helped the volunteers provide the essential fire protection for our brand new community.
Twenty–five years ago, the citizens of Lake Saint Louis took a big step forward, securing their community’s future. In May of 1972 the voters of Lake Saint Louis overwhelmingly approved the formation of a taxing fire protection district under Chapter 321 of the Revised Statues of Missouri (171 yes to 6 no votes, about as close to unanimous as you can get in any election). Chief Whitney told me those firefighters from O’Fallon (a long established department) supported and assisted the Lake Saint Louis volunteers with the necessary steps in creating a fire protection district. In July of 1972 the Lake Saint Louis Fire Protection District was officially formed. Finally the volunteer firefighters had some money to purchase the firefighting equipment they so badly needed. Lake Saint Louis as a community was growing and now the fire department had the means to grow with it.
When the volunteers formed the department in 1969 they appointed Jim Kallay as the first Fire Chief according to Chief Whitney. After only a month Jim stepped down and Whitney became Chief, leading the volunteers for nine years in the top spot. Several have served after Whitney, Gene Lloyd – two years, George Bullock – three years, Jeff Oldfield (the first full time paid Chief) – six years, Richard A. Shoaf – six years, Christopher Newbold – three years and presently Jeffrey P. Smith, who has been Chief since December of 1999. Ed Whitney still holds the honor of being the longest serving Fire Chief to date.
With the approval of the district and the thirty cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation property tax, the newly elected Board of Directors had their first meeting on July 17, 1972 at the C.A. offices. They went to work acquiring property for a firehouse and a pumper truck of their own. Chief Whitney told me that in 1973 the district opened its first firehouse at 900 South Service Road and took delivery of a 1972 front–mounted 1000 gpm pumper truck. They also purchased the previously "borrowed" 500 gpm pumper truck from the Community Association. With the new station, pumper trucks, and a few more volunteer firefighters, the district was laying the groundwork for a safer and more secure community as it grew.
Although the safety of life and property is certainly the most important function of any fire department, all departments are assigned a protection class rating for the purpose of setting insurance premiums on a homeowner’s policy. The rating starts at 10 for the least protection to 1 for the best protection. The Insurance Services Organization (ISO) takes many factors into consideration when they grade a fire department including water supplies, fire trucks and equipment, personnel, and building codes. In the early years of the fire district we were assigned a protection class rating 10. The Board of Directors seeing the rapid growth became not only concerned about fire suppression, but also saw the need to begin a fire prevention program to insure safer homes in the community. In September 1977 the Board passed into law the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) Basic Building Code for any structures to be constructed from then on. This action alone dropped the protection class rating to a class 9.
With the BOCA code in place the Board needed a way to enforce it. Another milestone was made that same month – the first Fire Marshal for the district was hired on a part time basis. His name was David House. House served as Fire Marshal for one year. Other part–time Fire Marshal’s to serve after House were Jerry Hodges – one year, Mark Kaiser – four years, Henry Blank and Wilber Kern – two years, Jeff Oldfield, Jim Oakes, and Richard Shoaf shared duties as Fire Marshal for two years.
In 1981 the Fire District as growth of the community continued took another major step. Fire Station Two was opened at 2533 Lake St. Louis Boulevard to protect new homes being built on the eastern and southern side of the district. With the addition of a second station another pumper was required and in 1982 a new 1500 gpm pumper was purchased. The addition of the station, pumper, and subsequent upgrading of the community water system allowed ISO to drop the protection class in 1982, to a class 6. This class remained in affect until January 2000 when with continued improvements the district’s rating dropped again to it’s present rating of class 5.
Statewide reassessment called for a mandatory rollback of the Fire District tax levy in 1985. At that time there had been no additional taxes levied from the original 30 cents per one hundred dollars approved when the district was formed in 1972. The Board of Directors rolled back the tax levy to 24 cents as mandated by the state. With the new station and equipment necessary for the protection of the district, the Board knew that 24 cents would not provide enough revenue to keep up with current expenses and, more importantly, future growth would be in jeopardy. In April 1986, for the first time since the formation of the district in 1972, the Board of Directors asked the citizens of Lake Saint Louis to approve a tax increase. The people of Lake Saint Louis came through again, approving an increase of an additional 25 cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation. Thanks to the citizens the Board again had the means to move forward with the growing community.
Fire prevention has always been a priority in Lake Saint Louis, and as the community was growing it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Fire Marshal’s Office to keep up with construction doing inspections on a part time basis. The Board of Directors made the decision that in 1986 it was time to break from being a completely volunteer fire department. The first full time paid firefighter was hired to keep pace with the rapidly growing community, Fire Chief Jeff Oldfield, who was the volunteer Chief since 1983, started full time in August 1986.
Full time code enforcement was now a reality for the Fire District and Chief Oldfield had his hands full due to the rapid building occurring at this time in Lake Saint Louis. To further assist him with all the inspections and daily functions of the Fire District, two more full time firefighters were hired, Richard A. Shoaf and Jim Oakes. All new construction in the district was now being inspected on a more regular basis to ensure the safety of citizens of Lake Saint Louis.
With new construction now being inspected by the Fire District, Chief Oldfield now turned his attention to a safety problem in a slightly different area. Existing homes built prior to code enforcement in our community lacked some of the basic life safety requirements. Under the direction of Chief Oldfield, the Board of Directors passed into law an ordinance requiring an inspection of any existing house sold in the Fire District prior to re–occupancy in June of 1987. This was another milestone in fire prevention and was the first re–occupancy inspection program by any fire department in St. Charles County. Today the Lake Saint Louis Fire Protection District is still the only district to offer this important and innovative program in the county.
With full time firefighters protecting the community, more plans for the future were set in motion. In April 1988 Lake Saint Louis voters approved a 3–cent Fire District pension plan for the security of the new career firefighters.
In 1988 the Fire District had purchased only one new pumper since it was formed in 1972. The rest of the apparatus was starting to age and the areas off of Lake St. Louis Boulevard were increasing rapidly in population where station two, now station one, is located. A new pumper was needed to, protect this area. A new state of the art pumper/rescue truck was purchased to fill these needs in the fall of 1988 from Saulsbury Fire Apparatus Company. The new pumper/rescue truck not only fulfilled fire suppression needs, but it also had powerful rescue equipment on board for use when persons are trapped in motor vehicle accidents.
In June 1989, Richard A. Shoaf was appointed by the Board of Directors to replace Chief Oldfield who had resigned. One of the first steps taken by Chief Shoaf was to model an ordinance for the placement and maintenance of smoke detectors in the Fire District. This was needed to continue providing the safest possible homes in St. Charles County. The Board of Directors passed this ordinance into law in May 1990, which has enabled the Fire Marshal’s Office to require the placement of smoke detectors in existing homes. In any one year the Fire Marshal’s Office has tested as many as 700 smoke detectors. It is our goal that all homes in the Fire District be equipped with functioning smoke detectors to help eliminate the possibility of any fire deaths.
With the unconventional way that Lake Saint Louis house addresses are assigned, Chief Shoaf modeled a district ordinance establishing requirements for placement of address numbers, The Board of Directors passed this ordinance into law in March of 1991. The intent of this ordinance is to assist first responding personnel in locating homes regardless of the type of emergency.
Christopher Newbold was appointed Fire Chief in 1996 after the resignation of Richard A. Shoaf. Chief Newbold had been with the district since 1989 serving as the Fire Marshal and a Battalion Chief. He served as Chief until his resignation in 1999.
With all these ordinances in place and being enforced as previously mentioned we were positive that Lake St. Louis was the safest place to live in St. Charles County. Unfortunately, all the planning and preparation in the world could not prepare us for what would happen one cold February morning in 1999. After over 25 years of existence the fire district suffered it’s first fire related fatalities ever in an apartment fire in the Mystic Village complex. That morning two residents lost their lives in what has proved to be one of the worst fires ever in the history of the Fire District.
As a result of this fire the Fire District began a massive door–to–door smoke detector inspection and give away program. Focusing mainly on those areas of the community were large numbers of lives could be in danger if a fire were to occur, such as apartment and condominium complexes. Individual residents were also urged to contact the fire district and request an inspection of their homes. In a short two–month period of time the district checked well over 500 residences, gave away almost as many smoke detectors and replaced over 250 batteries.
In December of 1999 the Board of Directors named Jeffrey P. Smith as Newbold’s successor as Fire Chief following his resignation. Chief Smith started with the district in 1987 as a volunteer firefighter and was hired full–time by the district in 1991. Having likewise served as the district’s Fire Marshal and continuing the long–standing practice of striving to improve the safety of the citizen of our community Chief Smith began working to pass a new fire prevention ordinance. Once again the Lake St. Louis Fire District was working to pass an ordinance unlike any other in the county. This time it was a sprinkler ordinance. This ordinance was aimed at both residential and commercial properties. In short, after almost 12 months of work, the district passed an ordinance requiring all new commercial structures over 5000 square feet be equipped with an automatic sprinkler system and all new home buyers must be offered as an option a residential sprinkler system in their new home.
Today the Fire District employs seven full time firefighters. They are on a rotating duty schedule from 6:00 a.m. on Monday through 6:00 p.m. on Friday to provide quick response to any alarms and provide the vital fire prevention programs that have been put in place over the years.
The Lake Saint Louis community has grown rapidly in the past thirty years and, as I have explained, so has the Fire District. Yet with all the growth, all the changes, and all the advancements in the fire service in general over the years, we have not lost sight of our humble beginnings started by those six volunteer firefighters in 1969. The volunteer firefighters are still the "backbone" of the Fire District today. When an alarm is sounded any of the volunteer men and women that are available drive to one of the two stations to respond the necessary fire apparatus to the emergency. Not only do the volunteer firefighters answer alarms, but they are also required to participate in a minimum of 50 hours of training each year. The unselfish devotion of their own time makes the volunteer firefighters one of the most valuable resources in this community. They are your co–workers, your friends, and your neighbors. They give freely of their time to protect your lives and properties without asking for anything in return. The satisfaction of providing community service is their reward – they are truly Lake Saint Louis’ BRAVEST!
By: Chief Christopher Newbold, circa 1998
Revised By: Chief Jeffrey Smith, October 2001
Revised By: Chief Jeffrey Smith, July 2005