Program looks back at a century of fire service in Roseville

ROSEVILLE — For 27 years, Larry Huck served the city as a member of the Roseville Fire Department.

Huck and his peers ran into burning homes, answered medical calls, responded to accident scenes and participated in community events with the public.

“I was part of the first group that went to a full-time academy before we started working. That was 41 years ago. It was a great job. You saw everything,” the retired battalion chief said. “Twenty-seven years go by in the blink of an eye.”

Along the way, the firefighter became somewhat of a historian for the department, preserving photographs and memories that tell the story of the city’s two firehouses and its firefighters.

With the Roseville Fire Department turning 100 years old this year in 2026, Huck was the guest speaker at the Roseville Historical & Genealogical Society’s April 21 meeting held inside the Roseville Middle School media center. Through a slide show, Huck detailed the department’s 100-year history.

The Macomb Township resident began by showing a photo of the city’s first 1926 Peter Pirsch pump truck with the town’s original 10 firemen, according to an official roster: John Fessler, Adolph Hartung, Clarence Houghten, William Klander, Arthur Pickler, Charles Pickler, Edward Toof, Raymond Woodcock, Worth Wood and Ed Palaski, who served as chief for one year. Some records have his last name spelled as “Pulaski.” 

“This was at the time the area was known as the unincorporated village of Roseville became incorporated,” said Huck, who comes from a family of firefighters. “This is what brought about the need for a fire department and a police department. That’s when they started bringing Detroit city water north.”

Hartung then took over as fire chief, a position he held for eight years.

“He was there when they built the municipal building at Gratiot and Meier. That opened in 1929, and there were four (fire) bays on the side of the building out on Meier Road where they parked the trucks,” Huck said. “When they built the municipal building, they put a siren on top and that’s how they alerted firemen to come to work.”

 

Putting out fires
Huck shared many images through the decades that outlined anything that could happen while on the job — smoke billowing from apartment buildings, rooftops of homes in flames, crews in turnout gear, hazardous spots, apparatus in use, friendships forming, and a rescue of a car dangling over a freeway overpass. Some training exercises from the past resembled a high-wire circus act. 

“Probably one of the worst life losses was the 1949 fire at Frenchy’s (Auto and Parts) at Florian and Gratiot,” Huck said. “The wife had gone down the street to the market. When she came back, smoke was coming out of the apartment house, above the building, that they lived in. Her husband and his help were trying to get in the house. They couldn’t.”    

Just one firefighter was on duty.

“He did manage to ladder the building. He got in,” Huck said. “He handed all the kids down the ladder.”

But it was too late. 

“All five of them died of smoke inhalation,” Huck said, adding that the couple went on to have five more children.

Many attendees reacted when pictures of Federal’s Department Store on fire Feb. 12, 1978, appeared. Although the popular retailer, in the Eastgate Shopping Center, burned to the ground, there were no reported injuries. 

Snapshots of fire trucks used over the years were highlighted as well. The 1961 Seagrave aerial was the biggest truck in the county at the time. In January 1949, Fire Chief Harold A. Flechsig wrote an article, “Planned Fire Protection Pays Off,” for the American City publication. Flechsig mentioned the department had four vehicles at the time, including a Peter Pirsch 600-gallon pumping engine; a General Detroit 500-gallon pumping engine with a 500-gallon booster tank; a utility unit 150-gallon pump used on grass fires; and a 1,000 gallon American LaFrance pumping engine. 

The vehicles were usually white, not red, and each had specific features. The General Detroit, for instance, was equipped with a two-way radio, “which as far as I know is the first time a pumping engine was so equipped in Michigan,” Flechsig wrote. 

The room fell silent when Huck remembered the three firemen who died in the line of duty. In 1964, Edwin Harris was killed in a car crash while responding to a fire. In 1968, the department mourned the loss of Capt. James Mitchell, who suffered a fatal heart attack in front of Detroit Plastic Molding. Huck also remembered Sgt. Joseph Riesterer, who died of a heart attack in 1977. Huck said the department used the ’47 LaFrance as a funereal caisson for all three firemen. He added that Riesterer drove the truck for Harris and Mitchell.

“In 1977, he got the ride,” Huck said. “When they used it for funerals, we take black bunting cloth and cover up all the chrome. Anything shiny on the truck is covered up.”

The antique trucks caught the attention of Larry Anderson and Dave Martin, both of St. Clair Shores.

“Some people like ’57 Chevys. I like fire engines,” Anderson, 78, said. “I like Seagrave fire trucks from the 1930s to the 1960s.”

“They’re sentimental,” said Martin, also 78, who thought Huck’s presentation was “great. I enjoy coming out to something like this just to see what’s going on in the community.”

While Huck showed the seriousness of the profession, he also tossed in a few humorous tales. The marquee sign that read, “We still make house calls, operators standing by” drew chuckles, as did his comments about the lounge area that never changed in his 27 years.  For many years, the sleeping quarters were just several beds in a large room with a handful of folding chairs. Eventually, the firehouse outgrew its location at Gratiot and Meier. 

 

‘The work ethic has always been fantastic in Roseville.’
In 1988, Roseville welcomed its first female firefighter, Bonnie DeMeyere. Other women followed in her footsteps. The department currently employs five female firefighters, including Capt. Michelle Cattaneo.  

Huck displayed a banner that marked the department’s 75-year anniversary in 2001. However, the diamond anniversary wasn’t much of a celebration because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on American soil, which killed nearly 3,000 individuals, including 343 first responders. 

During the evening, Roseville Fire Chief Keith Jacobs updated the audience on the department’s current status. 

In total, the maximum number of staff is 46, including Jacobs, Cattaneo, Fire Marshal Bill Ciner, fire training officer Capt. Joel Britt, and 42 firefighters, including three battalion chiefs, three captains, three lieutenants, and three sergeants. All the firefighters and administrators are paramedics too. The firefighters work 24-hour shifts on a rotating schedule. 

“The work ethic has always been fantastic in Roseville,” Jacobs said. “I would go into any burning building with any of them.” 

The RFD recently underwent building updates as the result of the city’s $20 million municipal facilities bond proposal that Roseville taxpayers passed in November 2023. The 30-year bond is funding a number of improvements, including those at the fire stations, library, court facilities and Department of Public Services building.

Station No. 2 at 17644 Frazho Road opened back up last fall after being closed for several months for renovations. Station No. 1 at 18961 Common Road is currently undergoing updates, which are estimated to be done by mid-July. With the upgrades, the fire administrative offices have a new home at the SERESA building at Common and Tennessee Street. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting the bond,” Jacobs said. 

Because of the ongoing construction, the department did not hold its annual fire safety open house last fall. There are plans to hold it this fall in conjunction with the 100-year anniversary.

The Roseville Historical & Genealogical Society’s next monthly presentation will be at 6 p.m. May 19 at Roseville Middle School, 16250 Martin Road. Featured speaker Steve Lehto will discuss the Tucker automobile. Admission is free.