The History of Clark County Fire Department Clark County Fire Department’s beginnings date back to November 23, 1953 when it was officially organized. It was created out of the necessity of the safety of a rapid growing population. The population increase was triggered by the building of The Flamingo, which sent Las Vegas into a building boom. Once it became obvious that a fire department was needed, the community quickly came together, and men began working as firefighters before the first station was even built. Station 11 Station 11 is the station that started it all, it was a two-bay based facility commonly referred to as the Flamingo Station. The station was located at 88 E. Flamingo Rd and was equipped with a 1953 Seagrave and 750 GPM Pumper. With a new fire department, comes a new fire chief, and no one was a better fit for the job than William H. Trelease. He held the fire chief position of nearly 11 years, which is the second longest time someone has been a fire chief in Clark County Fire Department history. Trelease is a person firefighters of Clark County …show more content…
Captain Robert Taylor was given the role of the first drillmaster. It was created in 1959 as a way to better prepare all of the newly added members of the Clark County Fire Department team for the dangers they were certain to experience. Later in Chief Trelease’s tenure the training division created the “Rookie School”. This program had twelve trainees and took roughly five days to complete. This is very different from the current training process which takes an average of eighteen weeks. The department continued to grow as more people moved into the area which led to the appointment of various Lieutenants on July 6, 1959 in order to be more efficient. The first Lieutenants of the department include, Robert Folker, Frank Testa, Glen Ernest and Robert Case. The Post-Trelease