This is the overall story of the Tucson Fire Department (TFD) – its history and significant related events, highlighted by the stories of the special people who have served the Department. We start before there was a Tucson Fire Department, cover the formation of the TFD in 1881, and continue through more than 130 years of TFD history to the present.
Our primary sources of course are these ever growing archives of the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation.
“We” are brothers Al and Bob Ring. Al is a Tucson historian, “friend of the Department,” and a principal architect of the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation Archives. Al is also the official historian of the St. Mathews, Kentucky Fire Department, publishing Saint Matthews Firefighters. Bob is also a Tucson historian and author, publishing two books collecting his Arizona Daily Star newspaper columns, Tucson Reflections and Arizona Reflections. We have published three books together on Arizona history. All of this background appears on our ringbrothershistory.com web site.
We hope you enjoy our series of TFD History Reflections.
Al Ring – ringal@comcast.net
Bob Ring – ringbob1@aol.com
Reflections on Tucson Fire Department History
[click to download]
(Before-the-Tucson-Fire-Department.pdf, PDF, 1.43MB)
(The-First-Twenty-Years.pdf, PDF, 2.11MB)
(Early-20th-Century.pdf, PDF, 2.41MB)
(The-Incredible-Life-of-Jack-Boleyn.pdf, PDF, 1.4MB)
(Our-Four-Legged-Friends4th-Ed-.pdf, PDF, 19.83MB)
(Tucsons-Nott-Steamer.pdf, PDF, 1.87MB)
(The-Volunteer-Chiefs-of-the-Tucson-Fire-Department.pdf, PDF, 2.01MB)
(Through-Two-World-Wars.pdf, PDF, 3.73MB)
(Chief-Joseph-Roberts.pdf, PDF, 1.43MB)
(Hotel-Congress-Fire-and-the-Capture-of-John-Dillinger.pdf, PDF, 1.83MB)
(Unprecedented-Tucson-Growth.pdf, PDF, 3.31MB)
(The-Pioneer-Hotel-Fire.pdf, PDF, 3.59MB)
(Closing-the-20th-Century.pdf, PDF, 3MB)
(Starting-the-21st-Century.pdf, PDF, 2.94MB)
(Emergency-Medical-Services.pdf, PDF, 1.85MB)