UNION HILL — With its final days ticking down before its Dec. 31 closing, the Union Hill Fire Department still worked to protect its neighbors, responding to a Thursday fire that destroyed an Ontario Home.
The trip to the scene brought some laconic musing.
"One guy in the back says, 'I was wondering if we were going to get one before the end of the year,'" recalled firefighter Kirk Willis. "So you don't know till 12:01 a.m. whether it's over."
That same evening, Union Hill volunteers took representatives of three other local fire departments for a ride in one of their trucks, giving them a look at their equipment because some might want to buy it when the gear is liquidated.
Since 1944, the Union Hill company had protected about 10 square miles between County Line Road and Lakeside Road, Whitney Road and Lake road, straddling Webster and Ontario, but earlier this year consolidation of territory and chronic trouble finding new volunteers brought the decision to shut the company down.
"You put your heart and soul into something, it's kind of hard to say goodbye," Kevin Ramph, Union Hill's volunteer fire chief, said. "At the end of the day it's kind of hard. After you spent 17 years, 20 years, 30 years doing something."
"It's been tough," longtime volunteer Greg Read said. "I fought hard for a lot of this [equipment] but, like they say, times have changed. Lack of volunteering, stuff like that. These little departments are all folding."
Read hooked up with the department as a teenager in the 1970s when his dad was fire chief. After decades of service, he concluded it was time to hang up his helmet.
"I'm going to just get in my canoe and paddle up the creek. I am retiring after 45 years," Read said.
In anticipation of the end, other Union Hill volunteers have been talking with nearby departments about taking their experience someplace new.
The fire district in Ontario promised to count their years of experience toward seniority there.
"Ontario has said ... Lincoln has said, 'Come on down,'" Ramph said. "Others are looking. Others have said 'Come on over.'"
The Ontario Fire District planned to take over the territory covered by Union Hill and preparations for the transition had been underway for months, Ramph said.
"911 knows what's going on. So everybody's on the same page," he said.
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