History
The PastDwight, North Dakota was home to the first North Dakota governor. The Dwight Volunteer Fire Department was established in the late 1880's. The original fire hall housed two hand pulled fire carts, which are still intact. The original fire hall was destroyed during a violent storm in the 1940's. The 200 or so residents of the community and farmers surrounding Dwight donated money for the new fire hall. The old hotel was purchased and remodeled into a fire hall, and a 1936 International pumper was purchased. All the work on the new fire station was done by volunteers from around the community. The second floor of the new fire hall was transformed into the community center and meeting rooms for it's patrons. A siren that alerted the firefighters was also installed at this time. Prior to the installation of the siren a large bell was used to call the firefighters to duty. The bell is still on display in front of the Dwight fire hall. The Dwight fire department operated entirely from funds secured through donations from the patrons it served until the early 1970's.Around 1955, a second truck was purchased. A 700 gallon tank was mounted and a pump installed by the communities volunteers. Sometime in the 1970's, a 1954 six-by-six Army truck was acquired from the National Guard. This truck was made into a water tanker by the communities volunteers. The Dwight fire hall had to be raised to accommodate the new tanker. The volunteers rose to the task. During the fall and winter of 1976-1977, a 40' x 80' three stall metal building was built to serve as the new fire hall and community center. In 1977 a new mini-pumper was purchased to improve the firefighting capabilities of the department. Since that time, a 3000 gallon tanker and two tanker pumper's, each carried 3000 gallons of water have been added to our apparatus inventory. A used ambulance was purchased and serves as an equipment and rescue truck, also a GMC Suburban was acquired from the forest service. About eight years ago, a telephone activated paging system by the county law enforcement center was added to improve firefighter response time. This was necessitated by our participation in a county wide mutual aid agreement and by state requirements.In 1994, a second fire station was built to help serve the more densely populated areas of the Dwight fire district. The east hall is one mile west of Wahpeton. The station housed a 750 gpm pumper, a 3000 gallon tanker and a GMC Suburban. The number of volunteers was also increased to better meet the needs of the community.In 2009, came the purchuse of a 1983 Luverne pumper retiring the previous pumper that was stationed in Dwight. The new truck has a 750 gallon tank, enclosed cab with four jump seats and much needed cargo room and more seating to help with the growth of the department. This new truck will be located at the east hall.More To Come!
