Stop 17 – The First Fire Chiefs

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For years, each fire company answered only to its own captain. That began to change on April tenth, eighteen seventy-three, when the three companies met to elect a single chief. The Great Western company was against the idea at first, but it passed by a majority.

The first Fire Chief was James A. Barr, of the Otoe Hook and Ladder Company. It was an unpaid job. No one is quite sure how long Barr served, or who came after him, until Mike Bauer took the job.

Mike Bauer joined Nebraska City Fire Company Number One when it was organized in eighteen sixty-five, as its first engineer. Over the years he served with the Great Western, led the combined company, and was first appointed Chief in eighteen eighty-one. He was also President of the Nebraska Volunteer Firemen's Association in nineteen-oh-four.

His name stayed on the rolls as an active fireman from eighteen sixty-five until his death on December twenty-ninth, nineteen thirty-two, at the age of eighty-five. That's sixty-seven years, and his career spanned everything from the bucket brigade to motorized pumpers.

Today, the Fire Chief directs the firefighters at the scene of a fire. The Chief is elected by the department, confirmed by the City Council, and can be re-confirmed each year.