Rock Community Fire District Celebrates Its 70th Year

Rock Community Fire Protection District will celebrate its 70th anniversary this month. In other words, the fire department existed before the city was incorporated.

Named after the rocky, difficult-to-tame farmland that surrounded the area, the early fire department began in first fire chief Sylvester Glangloff’s, garage in 1941. It started with only a handful of local volunteers.

“Fifteen citizens got together and started the fire-protection service after a local fire destroyed a lot of farmland,” said Jules Zimmermn, a member of the Rock Community Historic Committee and a firefighter of more than 56 years.

The area that these men protected extended from the current city of Arnold to the areas now known as the Jefferson County towns of Barnhart and Imperial.

“It existed before the post office, before Fox C-6 School District and even before Arnold itself," Zimmerman said. Arnold was officially incorporated in 1972, 31 years after Rock Community started out of Glangloff's garage.

In 1970, Rock Community was already serving those living in the Arnold area. Still, the department needed the citizens’ votes to determine whether or not it would become an official fire district with a tax base and more leverage in the city's decision making. The citizens voted yes, and the new district was able to hire significantly more full-time employees.

Many citizens continued to serve as volunteers, or reserves, for Rock Community, and there are still a number of reserves on call for the district today.

“My grandfather was a founding trustee in 1941, and my uncle was the first person to be employed as a fire marshall,” Rock Community Fire Chief Matthew Mayer said.

Mayer said he first became a volunteer for the district in 1975 and was officially hired only two years later.

Although Rock Community has advanced quite a bit since its beginning, Chief Mayer points out that its initial motto, “Whatever it takes,” has remained the same for 70 years.

In honor of the upcoming anniversary, Rock Community is selling a commemorative book of the fire district at its headquarters off of Telegraph Road.