A museum documenting the history of the Harrisonburg Fire Department is now equipped with a video tour led by the agency's long standing leader. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
On July 4th, 1944, an ice delivery truck had a short in its wiring, causing a vehicle fire. Another day, an oil stove blew up, causing over $1,500 in damage. Cigarettes caused accidental fires on Warsaw Avenue and many other locations throughout the year. These vignettes are recorded in a logbook from the 40s, one of the historical artifacts on display on the third floor of the public safety building in Harrisonburg. It sits alongside giant fire hose reels, rescue nets, and hazmat suits collected from the last 170-some years of firefighting in the city.
And now, whenever you visit the museum, retired Fire Chief Larry Shifflett can be your guide – through a series of videos linked to QR codes at each exhibit.
LARRY SHIFFLETT [in video]: In earlier years, before they had electric sirens on fire trucks, fire trucks had sirens that were hand cranked, just like this siren. And as you're driving the fire truck, hopefully there's somebody riding in the front seat with you that can use the siren – [cranks siren] – and they had to do that all the way to the fire. Now, if it was a short run, you know, it's not so bad, but these things don't crank easy.
Shifflett is a repository of knowledge about the local fire department and the history of the profession. He first joined the agency as a teenage volunteer firefighter in 1969.
SHIFFLETT: My Dad was one of the city's assistant fire chiefs, and any time he went to the fire station, and we got to be old enough to go along, well, we always went along with him. So I've been in and around the fire department all my life.
He served for a total of 47 years – retiring in 2016 after more than three decades as the chief. The department started displaying historical equipment in the administrative offices around 2007. Shifflett said visitors would come to talk to someone in the office, and then –
SHIFFLETT: They'd poke their head in my office door and say, "hey, you know, I've got this in my attic that belonged to my granddad or somebody in the family, and it's been there forever and we don't have anything to do with it, would you like to have it?"
Chief Shifflett usually did want to have it. The exhibits include photographs and newspaper accounts of major fires – like the one that destroyed the Eastern Mennonite University campus center 40 years ago. This was one of Shifflett's first big fires as chief. Besides the size of the inferno, he was also challenged by a relatively small water tank on top of the hill. He needed another source of water – and the closest one was a fire hydrant more than a mile away.
SHIFFLETT: We had to set up what's called a relay operation. Usually, when the fire truck pulls up to the fire hydrant, they'll hook to the fire hydrant and pump the water down to wherever the fire is. It could be 500 to 1,000 feet away. If it gets to be more than 1,000 feet, then the fire truck on the fire hydrant has to pump water to another fire truck. … It took a good 30 minutes or more to get that relay set up, because to begin with, you've got to have about five fire trucks to put in that relay.
The idea of a video tour was borne out of a meeting of the Harrisonburg Professional Firefighters Foundation. Board Chair Ryan Sodikoff, the general manager of Steven Toyota, had asked Shifflett to show them around.
RYAN SODIKOFF: He has just unbelievable stories for all the things in there.
His favorite artifacts were old-school, glass bulb-style fire extinguishers, that were thrown at fires and shattered on impact, releasing a fire-suppressing chemical.
SODIKOFF: And I started thinking of a QR code idea, and how can we give a tour of this museum even when Chief Shifflett's not here? … And it was very important that he do it, because he knows the story. He knows the history. He has the passion. He's the one that parked at that intersection and had somebody put that artifact in the bed of his truck!
Sodikoff asked the ad agency that does work for his dealership if they would help create this video – and they agreed to do it for free. A film crew came down, set Shifflett up with a microphone, and recorded his narration, as he held up memorabilia, such as an ornate silver instrument from the 1920s.
SHIFFLETT [in video]: This, years ago, before there were radios … was how the officers in command would shout their orders. [puts megaphone to mouth] This is simply a megaphone so that you could sit here and shout orders to whoever's on the fire ground.
The QR codes were installed in January. The fire department continues to grow and morph – a long-awaited fifth fire station is currently in the works on Mount Clinton Pike, thanks to American Rescue Plan Act funds. For Shifflett, though, the dedication to his department remains unchanged.
SHIFFLETT: I'm still a kid at heart. I still love fire trucks. If I'm in my car somewhere and I know a fire truck's coming, I'll either pull over and watch it go by, or I'll drive around the block to see it. The love of the fire service, for somebody who truly loved the fire service, never leaves.
The museum is open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Entrance is free, although you do have to check in with the front desk on the first floor of the public safety building to get a pass.
Editor's note, Mar. 5 — a previous version of this story included a misspelling Ryan Sodikoff's name. It has been corrected.
