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Lester J. Carpenter, 222 East Poplar Street, was the son of York City Patrolman George S. Carpenter. He was born on December 18, 1905 in Lancaster County, but was raised in York.

In 1922, the Reliance Fire Company purchased an American La France 750 gallon-per-minute triple-combination pumper. It was initially housed at the Royal engine house in York City until the engine was tested and accepted, and an official housing was held in West York. The York representative of American La France was James E. Chalfont. Lester J. Carpenter was serving as an extra driver at the Royal Engine House at this time.

In January of 1926, West York had a new chief burgess, and four new borough councilmen. A reorganization meeting was held on Monday, January 4, 1926 in the borough council chambers on the second floor of the Reliance engine house. The election of a new chief burgess and council is a regular occurrence in many municipalities, but this year, in this borough, it resulted in an era of discord between the fire company and the borough government.

At the January 18, 1926 meeting of the borough council, the council decided that the Reliance engine house should be staffed at all times. Previously, when the fire driver left for his meal breaks, there was no one assigned to cover the engine house until his return. Council ordered police officer William Axe to relieve the driver at each meal break, and to remain at the engine house until his return.

The Reliance firemen had been selected to serve as hosts for the annual meeting of the county firemen's association on Labor Day weekend in 1926, and were holding planning meetings, and raising funds to cover the costs of hosting the annual convention.

In February of 1926, council made arrangements with the York Fire Department that an extra driver from the York department would be made available if the driver for the Reliance apparatus was unavailable due to sickness or other emergency. Stewart A. Stambaugh, the Reliance driver, was ill at home during this time. Samuel Urich, the Reliance extra driver, has been filling in for Stambaugh.

The Reliance firemen were busy working on the details of a minstrel and vaudeville show, to be held at the engine house on March 12 and 13. A platform, to be used as a stage, was built at the rear of the engine house in the annex building. The annex to the engine house had been built in 1925 to provide additional room for the fire company. Ticket sales for the show, the proceeds from which were to be used to defray the costs of hosting the county convention, were brisk.

At the end of February, Reliance extra driver Samuel Urich tendered his resignation to the fire chief. It is presumed that the burden of filling in for Driver Stambaugh during his prolonged illness was too much for Urich.

On March 9, 1926, Stewart A. Stambaugh resigned as the driver for the Reliance Fire Company. A West York borough councilman appointed Lester J. Carpenter as his temporary replacement, on the recommendation of James E. Chalfont. The appointment was made outside of a regular council meeting, and without consulting with the Reliance Fire Company officers.

On Thursday night, March 11, 1926 at about 10:25 p.m., an excited telephone call to the Reliance engine house requested the company respond to the intersection of Market and Dewey Streets. Driver Carpenter and a number of Reliance firemen mounted the rig and quickly responded to the intersection, finding no emergency. The call was determined to be a prank call. This was the first in a series of false alarms to be called in to the Reliance engine house.

By Monday morning, March 16, 1926, six false alarms had been called in to the Reliance. The company responded to four of these calls, and telephone calls were placed before responding to the other two to confirm there was no fire. At the borough council meeting that evening in the council chambers on the second floor of the engine house, the rash of false calls were discussed as an item of concern during the meeting. At that same meeting, Lester Carpenter was appointed the regular driver for the Reliance, and Stewart Spangler and Andrew Myers were appointed as extra drivers. Carpenter was also appointed as desk sergeant for the police department, and as a fire policeman.

By March 19, 1926, the engine house had received nine false alarms, the last two occurring that evening. In those instances, driver Carpenter would call a residence nearby the location of the alarm to determine if there was a fire. In both instances, the phone calls confirmed there was no fire, and the apparatus never left the engine house.

On March 22, 1926 at 9:15 p.m., a call was received at the engine house for a report of a chimney fire at 1425 West Philadelphia Street. Extra driver Andrew Myers was on duty at the time, did not immediately sound the alarm due to the rash of false calls. Joseph Spahr, of 1411 West Philadelphia Street, after trying to extinguish the fire in the furnace, ran to the Reliance engine house to confirm that there was a fire. He encountered several Reliance firemen who were on their way to the scene to confirm there was a fire before putting the apparatus on the street. The apparatus responded, and the fire was extinguished with the contents of two hand fire extinguishers.

By the end of March, eleven false fire calls had been phoned in to the Reliance engine house.

On April 6, 1926, a phone call to the Reliance at 3:10 a.m. came from Spring Grove, requesting assistance with a large fire involving several building and automobiles. Driver Carpenter called Chief Burgess Gemmill for permission to take the apparatus outside of the borough. Burgess Gemmill called Milton Landis, chairman of the Fire Committee, who advised the Burgess that it would be appropriate to respond. Arrangements were made with the Royal to cover the borough, and as Carpenter was about to sound the alarm, a second phone call from Spring Grove cancelled the request. As the glow from the fire could be seen in West York, Carpenter accompanies Burgess Gemmill in his car to Spring Grove. Extra driver Stewart Spangler was left in charge of the engine house.

On April 8 and 9, 1926, Carpenter, acting in his role as desk sergeant, received two calls regarding a peeping Tom in the area of the West Side Sanitarium on West Market Street. The first call, at 11:45 p.m., brought Carpenter, Officer William Axe, Stewart Spangler and Walter M. Rinkenberger to the sanitarium, where they encountered a large man looking in the windows. The man, sensing the presence of the officers, climbed over a fence and ran. Carpenter fired a warning shot into the air, which had no effect on the fleeing man. At 1:30 a.m. the next morning, the second call was received, and Carpenter and Spangler returned to the sanitarium. The man was once again spotted, and Spangler had worked his way close enough to the man to ask him what he was doing. The man again fled to the fence, this time with Carpenter waiting him at the fence. As Carpenter ordered the man to stop, a shot rang out from the man's revolver and he climbed another fence to escape. Carpenter also fired, but was unable to stop the man.

On Thursday, May 13, 1926, a special meeting of the Reliance Fire Company was called to discuss issues the fire company was having with the borough fathers. About 50 members attended, and in the end they adopted a following resolution to present to borough council:

"To the West York Borough Council"

"We, the members of the Reliance Fire company at a special meeting called May 13, 1926 demand the following:

"1 - We demand that the borough council appropriate sufficient funds, approximately $4,000, for the maintenance of the Fire house, apparatus, etc.

"2 - We further request that the fire company be given full control over the building and apparatus.

"3 - We further request that the driver and all others connected with fighting fires be under the jurisdiction of the fireman."

A newspaper article in the May 14, 1926 issue of the York Dispatch summed up the grievances of the fire company members:

"With the reorganization of the borough council at the beginning of the year a new fire committee was appointed. This committee, it is alleged, became so dictatorial as to the way a fire house should be conducted that the company members no longer cared to spend any time within its doors. Signs appeared on the walls of the hall on which were printed rules and regulations. Card games and other amusements heretofore indulged in were nearly ruled out owing to an alleged order for the conservation of electric lights; and, further, the general hospitality of the fire house took on a shady hue.

"The promotion of activity about the fire house, which had to do especially with the younger element among the membership in the shows which were held in the hall and given under the name of the Reliance Fire company, and which netted that organization a fair sum of money, was nipped in the bud by an order to remove the stage which was erected. The lumber used toward this erection took from the coffers of the company the sum of $150. Compulsion, it is said, necessitated its removal from the fire house to a warehouse, where it is stored, instead of placing it in the fire house for immediate use when necessary.

"The consensus of opinion among the firemen, upon the completion of the addition to the fire house, was that the building be used by the firemen and as a public meeting place. It was brought out by speakers at the meeting that it lacked nearly all its supposed hospitality."

At this meeting, resignations were received from the foreman, Walter H. Rinkenberger, and extra drivers Stewart Spangler and Andrew Myers. As the borough council appoints drivers, those resignations were discarded, and the resignation of Rinkenberger was rejected by a unanimous vote. Rinkenberger alleged that a member of the Fire Committee suggested he resign after the two had a difference of opinion during a recent testing of new fire hose.

On Tuesday, May 18, 1926, the resolution was presented to borough council at a meeting, with nearly 75 members of the fire company in attendance. As a spokesman for the fire company concluded, Milton E. Landis, chairman of the Fire Committee rose to respond. He denied telling Rinkenberger to resign, instead explaining that when a date was set for testing the new hose, Rinkenberger said that he could not get any of the men out to help test the hose. Landis said he responded "If your control over the firemen has come to such a pass, probably it would be better if you would resign." Landis said that the rules and regulations that were posted were drafted by a committee that included members of the fire company, and they were posted as a result of the language and conduct that is often seen and heard at the fire hall, to the extent that members and citizens preferred to stay away. Regarding the issue of lighting, Landis provided comparison data which showed that the Reliance engine house used more electricity than three fire houses in the city did during the same time period.

As the meeting progressed, driver Lester Carpenter became the target. Carpenter was portrayed as domineering, at which point Carpenter tendered his resignation to council. Carpenter said his resignation was as the result of ill-will from many of the company members, which was incurred through his attempt to enforce the rules. His resignation was held over by council. In the end, a group was formed, consisting of the council's Fire Committee, council president, and the president and trustees of the fire company, which were tasked with settling the friction between the borough and the fire company.

On May 21, 1926, Reliance foreman Walter H. Rinkenberger turned over his badge, keys and other items to Chief Burgess James W, Gemmill, resigning as foreman of the fire company. That evening, false fire alarms were once again being called in to the engine house. It had been several weeks since a false alarm had been received at the Reliance.

On May 29, 1926 at about 1:30 a.m., driver Lester Carpenter awoke in the second floor bedroom of the Reliance engine house to find the bedroom full of smoke, making breathing difficult. Choking and groping his way through the smoke, Carpenter located and attempted to slide down the fire pole to the apparatus room, but lost his grip and fell to the concrete floor, striking a table at the bottom of the pole. Carpenter made his way to the front of the engine house, and opened the door to the outside. Two men sitting in a car noticed Carpenter exit the building and the heavy smoke coming from the door, and ran to his aid. They sounded the alarm by ringing the engine house's tower bell. Carpenter entered the engine house and drove the pumper to the hydrant at Market Street and Highland Avenue, and the firemen began to fight the fire. It took about 90 minutes to bring the fire under control. The fire stared in the furnace room in the left rear area of the basement of the annex. Carpenter was off-duty for several days as a result of his injuries, and extra drivers from York filled in while he was recuperating.

On the evening of June 1, 1926, four representatives of the borough council, and four representatives of the fire company, met behind closed doors to hash out the differences between the two organizations. Their proposed solution was presented to both the borough council and the fire company at their respective meetings on Monday, June 7, 1926. The proposal read as follows:

"We the undersigned appointed as a special committee, beg leave to submit the following report:

"In response to the resolutions presented to council by the Reliance Fire company, regarding the control and the management of the fire house, all matters pertaining to the fire fighting equipment, after due consideration, was are prepared to present the following report:

"That the members of West York borough council authorize trustees of the Reliance Fire company to assume control and supervision upon condition hereafter names. We agree that said trustees should assume full control over the fire house and the equipment insofar as it concerns the fire company's activities. By this agreement it is understood that the trustees of the fire company shall be privileged to grant to responsible persons of the said fire company the use of the hall for holding entertainments that are in direct benefit of the fire company, and that any such decision shall be reported to the borough council, in order that there shall be no conflict in the dates.

"It is further understood that the trustees shall recommend to council the employment and the dismissal of drivers and all of his assistant drivers. Council will immediately act on such persons and will grant such recommendations if they meet with its approval. The driver and his assistants shall be at all times under the direct control of the trustees, from whom they shall receive instructions. The above will become effective on or after June 7, 1926."

The resolution was signed by M.E. Landis, W.H. Jones, Howard Zarfoss and Charles N. Jacobs, representing the Fire Committee of council, and by H.L. Altland, P.H. Stauffer, L.E. Shaffer and J.W. Emig, representing the fire company. The proposal was approved by both bodies at their respective meetings that evening.

On Thursday morning, June 10, 1926 at about 11:30 a.m., a fire was discovered in a wood-frame shed to the rear of the Reliance engine house. As driver Carpenter brought the engine around to the rear of the engine house, firemen opened the shed and found the fire involving a pile of wood stacked up in a pyramid. Found amongst the wood was a pack of matches similar to those in the fire company's canteen. The wood was dragged from the shed and the fire extinguished.

The fire resulted in the resignation of Carpenter as driver and desk sergeant, effective Saturday, June 12, 1926 at noon. "This so called mystery, which surrounds the fires on property belonging to the West York borough, are no mystery to me. It was a deliberate attempt on the part of an individual or clique of persons antagonistic towards me, to get me in bad." Carpenter stated to a reporter for the York Dispatch. "It appears to me that both of them were attempts to catch me unawares and thus place the entire responsibility on me. Last night upon my return to the fire house, it being my evening off, I was informed that someone had made the remark that I was the one who had planned all of it. The person who made the remark is known to me and I have taken steps through a local attorney toward the prosecution of this person. What motive there would for me to do such things is beyond me to see. I believe they were deliberate attempts to get me in bad."

On Saturday, June 12, 1926 at noon, Carpenter turned over the keys to the truck and the building to the trustees of the fire company, and the items in his possession as desk sergeant to Burgess Gemmill. This ended Carpenter's career with the borough of West York. Carpenter's resignation was officially accepted by the borough council at their regular meeting on Monday, June 28, 1926.

Carpenter would go on to a long career in law enforcement, joining his father on the York Police Department in 1926, later serving on the Lancaster Police Department, and eventually serving as chief of the Ambler, Pa. Police Department from 1940 to 1976.

The causes of the two fires to strike the Reliance fire house remain undetermined.

 

Any additions, corrections and/or comments are welcomed.