Fire Safety & Volunteer Fire Departments

As always for most communities, fire safety has always been a major concern for the villages of Lyons and Muir, especially in the 1800’s and early 1900’s prior to the availability of improved fire fighting equipment and the establishment of organized volunteer fire departments.  The downtown areas of both villages suffered numerous devastating fires.  By 1900, Lyons had suffered ten (10) serious fires and, again in 1914, nearly a block of the downtown area was destroyed by fire.  On April 15, 1889, Muir experienced “the big fire”, during which over thirty (30) downtown buildings were fully destroyed (at a mostly uninsured approximate loss of $30,000) by a fire that had started in a downtown hotel.

Prior to the early 1990’s, each of the Lyons and Muir villages operated its own separate fire services.  The Village of Lyons Fire Department consisted of roughly twelve (12) firefighters and the Muir Fire Department had about ten (10) firefighters.  Then, due to budget reasons, the two villages combined the fire departments (under Lyons Township) into what was then and is still the Lyons Township Lyons-Muir Fire Department (LMFD), located on Water Street in Lyons.  At the time, the fire equipment consisted of a pumper, tanker and a grass rig, and the LMFD only responded to fire calls.

Until the mid to late 1990’s, all area Emergency Medical Service (EMS) calls were handled by Richard Hull of Muir, who ran an ambulance service for the township.  However, when that was closed, some LMFD members agreed to go to medical first responder (MFR) training, and a rescue unit and EMS services were added to the LMFD’s public service responsibilities.   

Throughout the years, the LMFD has improved and added to its public safety services for the Lyons-Muir community.  The current station was updated in 2002, adding a meeting room and extra bays for equipment.  The station now houses a pumper, tanker, brush truck, squad truck, a rescue boat and a dive trailer.  With two rivers running through the two villages, it is an added asset for the community that several members of the LMFD are also trained in water rescue and are dive team ready.

As a special note, the LMFD established an explorer program in 2004, where kids were able to be part of the LMFD activities and learn valuable skills to later become firefighters.  Some of those former explorers are currently members of the LMFD today!

As it stands, the current LMFD has twenty-one (21) active members.  Of those members, ten (10) are firefighters and MFRs, ten (10) are firefighters, and one is a MFR.  Many of those members have an extensive number of dedicated years of service with the LMFD.  The LMFD currently averages around one hundred eighty (180) calls per year, and is a highly valued part of the community’s public safety network.