STRANRAER FIRE BRIGADE

Fire was always a hazard in the town in the early days, but it was not until 1878 that the council seriously considered setting up a voluntary brigade. In the following year a suitable fire engine was obtained and stored in the Old Town Hall in what had been the former exchange or market.
A raging fire in the Reformatory in 1878 found the hoses inadequate and the water supply insufficient. Workshops were destroyed and the houses opposite were threatened.
Among the first volunteers for the service was Mr Henry McPeak who gave over 40 years’ service to the brigade as did his two sons, John and Douglas, and the latter, like his father, became Officer in Charge of the Stranraer Station.
Bellevilla House, then occupied by Peter McClean, Duchra, was burned, fortunately not seriously in 1880, in a year of outbreaks which included a warehouse in Bridge Street and Meikle’s Hotel in George Street, and following a fire in a bakery in Castle Street, the firemen, a voluntary body, started to practice. Considerable damage was done to Sheuchan Mill and the Academy in 1894.
Additional hydrants and a four wheeled manual fire engine were purchased in 1905. Mr Wm. Downie was appointed firemaster at a salary of £5 per annum. The brigade was still accommodated in the store under the Old Town Hall. A serious outbreak in 1913 in the King’s Arms Hotel, Stranraer, tested the equipment which was found wanting and again a fire at the Greenvale Laundry in Greenvale Street showed the inadequacy of the preventative measures.
The council committee examined one of the places which had been burned and another which had been so much damaged as to be a danger. The owner of the damaged property, John Hood, was hard to convince so the committee gave him “a few shillings so that he could get it sorted himself.”
A new convener, in 1928, elected to test the efficiency of the Brigade and staged a practice in a house in West End. When the engine and apparatus arrived, however, the men were so exhausted by the haul that the convener decided the “fire” was out of control and suggested that the town and county get together and purchase a mobile unit.
An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1937 to have the brigade housed in more suitable premises but all that transpired was the purchase of a new tender and in 1939 the two councils came to an agreement that the Stranraer Brigade would attend outbreaks in the landward area of the Rhins as well as in the town; this was not an agreement reached without some dissentients. The brigade had moved to Ashwood Drive.
Subsequently more up to date equipment was purchased by the Joint Fire Brigade Committee when, in 1957 all firefighting equipment came under regions, though when the firemen moved to their new premises in Lewis Street, formerly the old jail and police station, in 1960, they were still a voluntary body.
(From History of Stranraer  by Stranraer & Dist. Local History Trust.  Pages 69 & 70.)

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