Listening to Gary Johnson, a 40-year member of the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Company and its chief, the toughest battle in the 100-year history of the company was not fighting a fire. Rather it was dousing the city’s effort to take the station that closed in 1973 and that the company planned to transform into a museum.

It was 1978, a year after Johnson joined the company, and the city was looking to demolish the station as it had been built on Clark Street, which was a paper street but offered access to a property being eyed for development.

“It would have meant the leveling of the station,” Johnson said Saturday morning as members, the city’s color guard, neighbors and city officials gathered outside for ceremonies commemorating the company’s 100th anniversary. The company’s two restored fire trucks, a 1940 Mack that was bought new by the city for $6,300 and a 1954 Maxim, glistened in the sun. The Maxim recently returned from the ACI where an inmate spent three months restoring it to looking brand new. Also on display was an 1825 “hand tub,” the first piece of fire apparatus brought by the museum that was originally from Providence.

Obviously, the station wasn’t leveled although it became obsolete when the city bought a fire truck that would barely fit into it. It coincided with construction of the Cowesett Road station, which then became Warwick Station #5. The Greenwood station was closed in 1973.

“We fought with the city over Clark Street,” said Johnson. 

As Johnson recalls after nine months of negotiations a deal was worked out with the developer of the property, the mayor and the fire company to give up a large portion of the station’s Kernick Street parking lot as access to the property behind the station and for the company to get the station for $1. “It made everyone happy,” he said.

When Johnson joined the company there was a total of 18 members.

Things have changed for the better since those days. The company has a membership of 175 and operates the station as a museum. The adjoining house is used for meetings, community events and for bingo the third Sunday of every month, a source of fundraising for the museum. More than bingo is needed for upkeep, utilities and other expenses.  Grants, sponsorships, dedication and fundraising brings in the rest of what’s needed, Johnson said.

Johnson, a retired West Warwick battalion chief, like many company members, has firefighting family roots.  He grew up not far from the station, recalling how the horn was blown daily at noon and 6 p.m.  “And we knew when to be home for dinner,” he said. His father, Arthur (Pete) Johnson, joined the company in 1956. And his grandfather Johnson, Thomas Smith was a Warwick firefighter. He died in 1962 from a heart attack on his way home from fighting a fire.

“There’s a lot of legacy,” Johnson says looking around the station floor. Leaning against one wall is what appears to be a giant trampoline with a red dot bullseye in its center. It’s a life net.

Leather straps hold the round cloth net taut to the ring surrounding it. There are no springs, for as Johnson observes if there were it would catapult firefighters and others seeking to escape burning buildings. Handles to the ring rotate. The objective is for those manning the life net to ease the net to the ground using the handles.

Johnson said volunteers were trained in using the life net, which was eventually removed from service because of injuries sustained — strains and torn ligaments — by those deploying it. As firefighters spend a lot of time living together and are dependent upon each other they become like family.

“In fighting a fire you have to put your trust in the guys around you…that’s family,” he said.

During activities Saturday, that feeling of family was evident as members greeted each other.

The transition from volunteer to an all city paid fire department started in 1956 when volunteers at the city’s six companies were paid a stipend as “call men.” In 1973, the city abolished the “call men” and went to a full-time paid department. Many of the call men became full time.