Alexis Fire Department was organized by a group of local men that were concerned with a lack in fire protection in the Alexis community. The department’s first official meeting was held on October 11, 1960. The department purchased its first apparatus, a 1932 open cab American LaFrance, which was housed in an old unused building on the corner of Highway 27 and Alexis High Shoals Road.
On October 4, 1961 the foundation for the original station was poured. The members of the department then began to operate the Stanley Theatre on December 8, 1961, in an effort to raise funds for the station construction. The original station was completed in July of 1962. It was then paid off in July of 1963, and the Stanley Theatre was closed in October of the same year. The department’s first new apparatus was purchased in March of 1970 at a total cost of $ 5,820.00.
The founding members of the Alexis Fire Department are as follows:
Ladd Maxwell, Austin Abernathy, Fred Payne, Lawrence McAllister Jr., Louis Presswood, Albert Bradshaw Jr., Lee Stroupe, Junior Dodgin, Clyde Bradshaw, Jim Long, Carl Stepp, Leonard Bynum, and Douglas Stepp
From those very humble beginnings, Alexis Fire Department has grown from responding from less than ten incidents a year to eight hundred a year. We strive to continue to build upon the foundations that the men listed above have laid out for this department, and seek to never rest, but continue to improve the services the we have been charged to provide.
