OCR Text |
Show mChii'f at 90 m Heads Force WFormvd in 1920 JJHra, ILL -Still head of the ""eerfire department which he 1S)m,H 27 years ago, 90-year-old Hi Fay" Veck, ranks as one of Kjest. if ot 1116 oldest- flre 't mm toe nation' daBtr.tly appointed by Mayor Leo B the job for four more yeck admits that his years lumbered but his seamed uMface showed little concern as iBdicted: "I don't think I'll last ijwhite-haired chief has helped most of the blazes in this n Illinois oil town for the years Despite administra-iSrnovers, administra-iSrnovers, he has held the post chief since he organized the volunteer department March Bien the volunteer fire de-dSnirnt de-dSnirnt was organized in 1920, jKjuipment consisted of a two .el hose cart with a reel and sBfeet of hose, the veteran f recalls. The city paid a r to the drayman who :Sd haul that iart to a flre ' how the three or four 'men in Flora would race am that dollar," he adds. B advance In equipment was jB steamer. Regarding this ma- B Yeck relates: "The fire B be out, or else the place :fl burn down before they'd get iBam to get it there." :flt 30 volunteers include the , police chief, a bank cashier, e owner, game warden, a bar-Kd bar-Kd an undertaker. They fight iKuthout pay "because they're ' hearted fellows, I guess. hey enjoy it, though. Espe-Bv Espe-Bv those pinochle games at Br meetings every month r the tire house." Hie Fay's office is a little desk a itairs, where he works to 5 every day, but "I'm Be: to call at all hours like a B - two pumper trucks, "one's Hjrtold; the other's 8. Both as as the day we got 'em." Btough a tiny gold badge on his s inscribed "E. D. Yeck," the B chief explains that his name is Edwin Dufay Yeck "but around Flora just call me Fay' especially the kids." '. who came to Illinois from HpviQe, W. Va., as a lad of six, B "lat there were only three in Flora when he arrived He spent his early years in - then was a barber for 50 |