Gaston Rural Fire District

At 2:45 p.m. on Friday, November 25, 1983, Chief Ron Hoodenpyl was driving home from Forest Grove when he heard the unthinkable: The Gaston Fire station was on fire.

After racing to the scene, the chief found Engine 1172, then less than a year old, engulfed in flames.

Gaston firefighters soon were joined by colleagues from Forest Grove, Yamhill, Cornelius and Hillsboro. Together they managed to save the building and other apparatus from total destruction, although every district vehicle suffered at least some damage.

As you can see in the photo above from Page 1 of The Oregonian the next day, Engine 1172 was knocked out of commission.

The engine was only 11 months old at the time of the fire, but all was not lost. In fact, 1172, now known as Engine 1173, was rebuilt and still serves the district to this day (see picture below) UPDATE: The old pumper was sold in 2009 to a small rural district, where it still answers the call of duty.

Investigators never discovered the cause of the fire, which happened when the station was at City Hall on Front Street.