YorkFire.Net

Hello. My name is Greg Halpin. I am a third generation member of the York City Fire Department. My maternal grandfather was a member of the Rescue Fire Company. My father was a career firefighter from 1955 until 1991. My three brothers and I all followed our father into the career, all serving and retiring from the same department. When I retired in 2015 at the rank of Deputy Chief, Fire Chief David Michaels appointed me to the position of Chief Historian of the department. I serve in that position with pride.

 

The Web Site

The concept for YorkFire.Net developed many, many years ago. A friend and I took a several day trips to take photographs of every fire station in York County. Although this seems like an easy project, it really wasn't.

This was before digital cameras, so we were both shooting with film, and we had to make every shot count. With the fronts of the fire stations facing every different direction, lighting was an issue. It required follow up trips to certain stations at specific times of the day so the buildings were lit properly. Eventually, we completed the project, but within a year it was out of date, as several replacement fire stations had been built.

Fast forward several years. I am now equipped with a great digital camera, a Nikon D50, and have continued to take fire scene photographs when circumstances allow, and fire police don't chase me away. :) I have been displaying those photos on my personal web site, which has gathered quite a local following. I have also been trying to maintain a list of local fire department web site links on my web site.

My photo collection was growing, and the limited storage space at my personal web site caused me to delete photographs every time I wanted to add new photos. I decided that I wanted to develop a new web site where I could put all of this information together.

As luck would have it, a dispute with a web hosting company caused me to seek out a new host for some other web sites I maintain. As a result, I purchased hosting from BlueHost which came with a free domain name. As I already had the domain names for the other sites, I started the search for a domain name for the new site. Several other choices were already registered, but I eventually settled on YorkFire.Net.

Unfortunately, the web site languished, as work and other priorities allowed me to push the development of the web site to the side. It seems that the web site was stuck in the year 2009. Links and other information stopped some time that year.

 

The Web Site Today

Since I have retired, and have gathered much information on the history of organized fire protection in York, I have looked for ways to share that information. I have spoken at the Osher Liflong Learning Institute at Penn State York, and have spoken at a Second Saturday presentation at the York County History Center, and several area fire companies have asked me to speak at their annual banquets. I created a York County, PA Fire Service History group on Facebook where I have been able to share much information.

In 2017, in conjunction with the City of York Department of Fire/Rescue Services, I developed a web site for the historic Laurel-Rex fire station at 49-51 South Duke Street in downtown York, as a location to provide historical information on that landmark structure.

So, the old YorkFire.Net now has a new life. It will be a repository for me to share various parts of the rich history of the fire service in York and York County. It is my goal to have this site available as a resource for those interested in this history, for genealogists researching family members with a local fire servie connection, or just as an interesting site for those with a passing interest.

Hopefully, other individuals and departments will be willing to provide additional content for this site. I don't know it all, and would greatly appreciate others allowing me to share their information here.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

 

Greg Halpin