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Spring Hill Fire Rescue History On April 30th 1967 Spring Hill became a community. On June 5th 1968, The Spring Hill Civic Club was created. Shortly thereafter the club formed its objectives and set off to make Spring Hill an enjoyable living community. One of the club’s first accomplishments was the dedication of Pioneer Park, but one of the clubs most significant accomplishments was the creation of the Spring Hill Fire Department. In December 1968 the Spring Hill Civic Club donated $75 for a Fire Department Budget and $35 for a charter and in January of 1969 The Spring Hill Volunteer Fire Department was created. A sign was put up at Pioneer Park to attract volunteers to join the newly formed department.
In the spring of 1970, the first fire station was opened. A 2-bay Volunteer Fire Station on Parker Ave, off of Spring Hill Drive. The first fire truck was a 1946 2 ½ Ton International, Military Crash Truck. The first ambulance was a 1956 Cadillac donated by Ernie Chatman of Chatman Buick-Pontiac. The first fire the department fought was a newly built ranch house in Aripeka. It wasn’t a major fire and the owners weren’t home at the time. The first fire within the limits of Spring Hill was a small residential fire that was quickly brought under control and the house was saved. Since Spring Hill was a newly built community, there were only a couple of fire calls the first year. In January of 1974, after a special referendum election, the Spring Hill Fire Department became the Spring Hill Fire & Rescue District. This was a special fire tax district, voted for by the citizens and making Spring Hill Fire & Rescue, still today, the first and only government body in Spring Hill. In February of 1974, the State of Florida required that to keep Ambulances running there would have to be EMT’s available around the clock. The department decided to hire EMT’s and Paramedics. After the public election, the department was voted to become a paid district. Nicholas Ruggiero, was hired as the first paid Fire Chief. Chief Ruggiero was one of the first three firefighters hired that covered the station 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, there was always one person on duty. The other two initial Spring Hill Firefighters were Jim Lindberg and Greg Storey. Within a year three more firefighters were hired and rotating shifts were created, so that there were always 2 members on duty. They worked a rotating shift of 24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on and 48 hours off. One of the most outstanding accomplishments of the department was the "hydro program". Before this began there were no fire hydrants in Spring Hill and a good reliable water supply was needed. It took three years to phase in the program. The first phase was implementing the program in the most populated areas, with the rest of the community following suit and the project finishing the final three stages some time after 1976.
As of today, Spring Hill Fire Rescue District has 2,478 Fire
Hydrants. The green circles are the Hydrants that has been plotted by GPS in
your Fire District. The red
circles are the County Fire Hydrants.
In 1976 the second fire station was built. Station "2" was built by volunteers on Mitzi Court off of Deltona Boulevard. Mitzi Court was later renamed Bob Hartung Court after a pioneer of the department, Bob Hartung, a Fire Commissioner for 11 years and chairman for over 8 years.
Two more Fire Stations have been built since then. Station 3 at Spring Hill Dr & Whitewood was constructed in 1985. Station 4 located on Mariner Boulevard across from the St. Francis Cabrini Church, was constructed in 1991 and dedicated to the memory of Firefighter James Winters who died during training at the State Fire College in Ocala on December 20th 1990. The Administration & Communications building, located next to Station 2, was constructed in 1986 on the site formerly used for training burns. Two Firefighters that began with the department since its inception are still aboard with us today: Captain Robert Hampton who started as a 15 year old Junior Firefighter with the first group of volunteers back in 1969 and came on line as a paid firefighter in October of 1976, just celebrated his 22nd year with the department. His father Charles Hampton had been Fire Commissioner when the department became a paid district. Lieutenant Joseph Bonczek who was hired in October of 1974 as one of the first paid firefighters is celebrating his 24th year leading Spring Hill Fire Rescue. The shoulder patch insignia that is worn by all Spring Hill Firefighters was designed by Communications Officer Anna Dietz between June of 1989 and March of 1990. The patch is a Gold Maltese Cross with an open center which depicts a firefighter in full bunker gear with flames rising up in the background. Adjacent to this image, on the left wing of the Cross is the blue Star of Life with Caduceus. On the right wing are a pike pole, ladder and pick axe crossed over each other in an "X". Above the image are the words SPRING HILL and below are the words FIRE RESCUE in red lettering. Spring Hill Fire Rescue has gone from a small handful of volunteers with one truck, a tanker and an ambulance, to a department of 88 personnel with 65 active firefighters including the Chief and Assistant Chief, with 4 Class ‘A’ Paramedic Engines with 1 Reserve Engine and 4 ALS Rescue/Paramedic Units, with 2 Reserve ambulances and a REHAB unit.
Spring Hill Fire Chiefs Joe Wolf....................................... 1969 - 1974 Nicholas Ruggiero....................February 1, 1974 - September 15, 1985 Robert Lani.................................December 2, 1985 - January 12, 1987 Donald Patterson......................October 1, 1987 - May 21, 1995 Michael Morgan.........................June 16, 1995 - November 2001 John J. Morrison.......................November 2001- February 15, 2008
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