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A review of the history of the Four Communities Fire Department would not be complete without talking a little bit about the history of Williams Point.
My thanks to the North Brevard Heritage Foundation for safe keeping much of the history of our community.
The Four Communities Fire Department was founded in 1951 and the Fire Station was built on its current site on 1955 on land donated to the department by Charles E. Williams.
Charlie William's parents built and operated the very popular Hub's Inn in 1923 on the banks of the Indian River. When U.S. Highway 1 opened Charlie bought the point of land created at the intersection of the river road and the Dixie Highway and named it "Williams Point." At this location he built a filling station with a garage in the back, and a one-bedroom apartment upstairs and later an office downstairs. Charlie opened his business on Christmas Day in 1927, which housed a machine shop and a concession stand in addition to the filling station.
In 1937 the Williams family built a two-story structure on the west side of U.S. Highway 1. Charlie's wife Myralene operated Myralene's Pit BBQ Restaurant downstairs, and rented rooms upstairs. A windmill at the point was used to pump water to the elevated water tank which provided running water. Before the firehouse was built, firemen used grove sprayers to put out fires, which were filled with water from the same water tank.
The building that began as Myralene's Pit BBQ Restaurant in 1935 eventually became the home of the popular Corky Bell's Seafood Restaurant, which was destroyed by fire during a hurricane in 2004, and later rebuilt. The elevated water tank and windmill that served the community of Williams Point for so many years, still stand caught in time on the hill located behind the new Corky Bell's Seafood Restaurant.
The "Front Hall" of the FCFD, which was built in 1955, served as the Fire Station until the "Back Barn" was built in 1965. From the 1950s up until the 1970s, the emergency medical roles of the Fire Department were not well developed, but the Fire Department kept busy due to the fact that fire-resistant construction standards had not yet been developed, and structure fires were far more common. In addition, the much more rural community was even more susceptible to wildland and brush fires.
Prior to 1984, Brevard County was broken up into 5 independent Fire Protection Districts, and ambulance service was provided by private ambulance companies. Since that time, the unification of Brevard County Fire Rescue has allowed it to better serve the unincorporated areas of Brevard County, and increase coverage from 15 fire stations to 33 fire stations.
It is during this time frame that new BCFR fire stations were built in Port St John and Canaveral Groves (Station 26 on Carole Av was built in 1988, and Station 29 on Canaveral Groves Blvd was built in 1994), overlapping the primary run area that the FCFD had been responsible for since 1951.
While it took quite some time, BCFR and FCFD have developed a very cohesive, mutually beneficial working relationship, which provides for excellent Fire Rescue service to the unincorporated areas between the Cities of Cocoa and Titusville.
Although the numbers of active volunteer firefighters today are not what they once were, tremendous improvements in equipment and training allow these unpaid professionals to provide an unprecedented level of service.

FCFD Memory Lane

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

A lot of current and former paid and volunteer firefighters have passed through the doors of Four Communities Fire Department.

A look at our last engine, along with our current engine (formerly E63).

Many will remember the old equipment, and some might even miss it.

FCFD often responded to help neighboring departments, as was the case in this Bellwood trailer Fire.

Here we are on scene with Station 15, on King Street, and at the BCI Fire in 1984:

Four Communities was especially proud of our FMC Fire Engine:

More Pictures From Memory Lane:

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11_Mims_Engine111.jpg

11_Mims_Squad111.jpg

11_Mims_Tanker111.jpg

11_Mims_Truck111.jpg

11_Mims_Utility111.jpg

12_Scottsmoor.jpg

12_Scottsmoor_Engine121.jpg

13_Bellwood.jpg

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13_Bellwood_Engine131.jpg

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21_Merritt_Island_Engine212.jpg

21_Merritt_Island_Rescue211.jpg

21_Merritt_Island_West_eastside.jpg

21_Merritt_Island_West_westside.jpg

22_Audubon.jpg

22_Audubon_Brush221.jpg

22_Audubon_Engine221.jpg

22_Audubon_Rescue221.jpg

23_Indianola.jpg

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23_Indianola_Engine231.jpg

24_Courtney.jpg

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BEAUREGARD.jpg

DAINTY DOLL.jpg

If you have any old pictures, or would care to share your stories of the history of our community fire department, please let us know. We'd luv to share them !

email us today :
info@fourcommunities.com

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