Name/Title
Virgin Valley Fire StationEntry/Object ID
1988.323.0042Description
Picture taken in 1950 of newly built Virgin Valley Fire Station and the new full equipped fire truck added to the volunteers fire department
Mesquite's "Volunteer Fire Department" probably dates to its permanent settlement in 1894. In an 1989 interview with long time resident, Sylvan Hughes, he said, "In the early days of the [Virgin] Valley the fire department was a community bucket brigade and most of the buildings burned down."
The scream of "Fire! Fire! Fire!" was a frightening thing. Everyone would come running with their buckets and carry water from the irrigation ditch to try to put out the fire and save what they could.
Brothers Lorin “Dutch” Leavitt, a Clark County Inspector, and Eldon Leavitt, Clark County Fire Captain, arranged for the donation of a surplus fire truck from Nellis Air Force Base. The vehicle was a six-cylinder, four-wheel-drive army truck. The truck had a 300 gallon water tank with a pump on the back and hose on the front end. The truck was housed at Bunkerville but serviced both communities.
In Mesquite, Sylvan Hughes was renting Howard Pulsipher's garage. He persuaded Vince Leavitt, Bunkerville Town Board Chairman, to house the truck in Mesquite where he kept it serviced. He rigged up a "trickle charger" to keep the battery charged even if the truck hadn't been used for a month and kept the tires inflated.
In the mid-1950's the Town of Mesquite bought this piece of land, and with the donated carpenter labor of Frank Lowe built the first fire house in Mesquite. The main volunteer firemen at the time were J.L. Bowler, Archie Hughes, Esmond Hughes, and Sylvan Hughes.
A few years later when the Town purchased another fire truck, it was too long for the fire house. They could never close the door. They would back the truck in, leaving the front end outside in the elements. Sylvan Hughes said, "We couldn't figure out why we didn't build that Fire House longer in the first place."