Submitted Photo Members of the Rugby Volunteer Fire Department pose with a legacy fire truck. The department is celebrating its 125th anniversary with a free community picnic at the Pierce County Fairgrounds at 6 p.m. on Monday.

The Rugby Volunteer Fire Department is marking its 125th anniversary this year with a free community picnic at the Pierce County Fairgrounds on Monday.

The event, hosted by the Rugby Fire Department Auxiliary, will begin at 6 p.m. and will run until all the food is gone.

“Hopefully, everybody shows up. We just want to say thanks to everybody for their support over the last 125 years. The community, the city and rural board, and landowners have always been really supportive,” FIre Chief Joel Berg said.

The RVFD has 36 active volunteer firefighters, according to Berg, ranging in experience from one year to 30 years. Berg said the volunteers have to stay up to date on their training to account to modern realities that have cropped up over the years.

“Our training officers do a good job of finding stuff for us to do and go over. We rely on our training to hone our skills. Things have changed in the last 20 years I’ve been on with the way fires burn. There’s more plastics. Everything is more dangerous. Now with electric cars, they throw curveballs at us. We try to stay on top of things as much as we can. I’d like to think we’re prepared for whatever comes our way in the future,” Berg said. “We have a good mix of guys who have each other’s backs.”

Berg said the department is grateful for grants and support it has received from the community in recent years, as it has enabled the department to acquire new equipment and units to better cover smaller, surrounding communities like Wolford, Willow City, Towner and Esmond.

“There’s a neighboring department – their pumper was down for repairs – and they asked if we could help them out if they had a structure fire, and we said sure, we can go help them out,” Berg said. ”

Former secretary/treasurer Chuck Teigen noted various expansions and improvements in the department’s capabilities made over the years to the various rigs and units available and updates to protection equipment and communication devices. The improvements, he said, enabled the city department and rural fire department, established in 1957, to keep all their bases covered.

“There are times when there’s a fire 20 miles south of Rugby and the Rural Department is out there, and all of a sudden there’s a call for a fire 10 miles north of Rugby. So, they have to split up,” Tiegen said. “We’re also always available for mutual aid to surrounding communities. This spring I know our units were up in the Rolla and Rolette communities when they had those grass fires for two or three days.”

The department is supported by numerous retired lifetime members, who answer the call for assistance if another situation arises while the crews are out on a call. One such lifetime member is Mark Johnson, a former chief who put in 30 years with the fire department, beginning in 1978.

“It’s all volunteer, but they do a fantastic job. When they blow the whistle, they have a fire, some of the lifers will drive out there to see what’s going on. But if they blow it a second time, that means they need help,” Johnson said. “A few years ago they had fire north of town, and they had one south of town, so they were short. The whistle went, and three of us loaded up a grass rig to put out a small grass fire. They called to see if we could handle it. I said, ‘There’s three of us in the truck, and between the three of us we had 85 years of experience so I think we can.”

Johnson highlighted the dedication shown by the all volunteer department, saying, “Rugby should be pretty proud of what they got.”

“When I first started in 1978, we had pretty good equipment. We had a really small firehall to start with. It only had three little doors on it, and we used to have three pumpers in there, a water wagon and two fire rigs in a building that wasn’t very big. People couldn’t believe we had that much equipment in that little hall. Now they’ve got the new fire hall, new funding and a bunch of new equipment,” Johnson said. “They have a great bunch of guys out there. You go to training, you do your thing, but when that whistle blows, that means you get up and go. You don’t say it’s too hot out or too cold out. Just about all of them, they’re dedicated. When that whistle blows, people can say they’ve got nothing to worry about, because the guys are there to take care of it.”