71 ....... Public safety Mt. Lebanon Fire Department 72 ....... STATE OF THE ART, 1920s The building on the far right is thought to be Mt. Lebanon’s first fire station, at 520 Washington Road, where the Lebanon House Apartments are now. Mt. Lebanon’s fire protection in the mid-1920s consisted of a 1923 American LaFrance 75, (left,) and a 1918 Marmon 6 automobile (right) which was bought damaged and converted into a fire truck. NEW HOME When the Mt. Lebanon Municipal Building was completed in 1930, the second floor headquartered by the fire department. Firemen got to the trucks in a hurry by sliding down the pole (second floor, third window from right). Mt. Lebanon Fire Department fighting FIRE Elected officials began discussing the idea of fire protection almost as soon as the township was founded in 1912, but spending money on it was another matter. A committee was formed in September 1912 to talk with South Pittsburgh Water Company about placing fire hydrants in the new community. That same month, Mt. Lebanon Garage Company submitted a proposal to the commission, offering to store a fire truck at its shop on Washington Road for $10 a month. In January 1913, commissioners advertised for a motor driven chemical truck with a 60-gallon chemical tank, 250 feet of chemical hose, 750 feet of standard fire hose and provisions for storing equipment. Bids were opened the next month and the matter referred to the fire protection committee, but no action was taken. It took until 1915, when a fire on Shady Avenue fought by the Dormont Fire Company destroyed the residence of Mrs. Catherine Haney, to prompt serious consideration of purchasing a fire truck. At a March 1 public meeting that year, Commissioner Frank W. Cooke moved to form a committee to purchase a fire engine, not to exceed $500. Two years had passed since hydrants were first considered; still no hydrants had been placed in town. On May 10, Mt. Lebanon purchased a chemical tank from Pittsburgh Fire Extinguisher Company for $486. By the end of summer, 11 hydrants were in working order. 73 Although the equipment was ser- ....... viceable and the best that could be expected for the price, the level of protection was illusory, as evidenced by a 1917 report from the Association of Fire Underwriters. Mt. Lebanon received no insurance credit for fire protection, based on an inspection of the firefighting apparatus. In November, 1917, Mt. Lebanon purchased a damaged Marmon 6 automo- bile for $300, with the idea of rebuilding it into a fire truck. The truck was in service early in 1918. The Mt. Lebanon Volunteer Fire Department was formed June 1, 1918, with its first fire station at 520 Washington Road, now the site of the Lebanon House Apartments. In early 1920, the 19-member department was reorganized. William Phillips, a municipal maintenance and code enforcement employee who had chaired the volunteer company, was named its first chief. Phillips also was its first paid employee, receiving $1 per hour to keep the equipment in shape. Volunteers were paid $1.50 per hour for the time they spent actually fighting fires, but in 1924—perhaps as an incentive to arrive early—a commission ordinance limited the payment to only six members per fire. Phillips worked tirelessly to raise the department’s profile and convince the public to make firefighting a financial priority. In 1922 he succeeded in persuading the commission to contribute surplus funds from an 8­-mill tax levy toward FIRST FIREMEN James Wood, (left) and David Hasley were Mt. Lebanon’s first fire- fighters. Wood, a former Mt. Lebanon police officer, was appointed chief in 1929, and Hasley was named his assistant the same year. Records show the two men did not get along, although they worked together for close to 20 years. the purchase of a new fire truck. The volunteers also pitched in, holding a series of fund-raisers that included summer street carnivals, a firemen’s ball, a banquet and other special events. In September 74 1922, the commission authorized a down payment ....... of $3,900 for the purchase of a 1923 American LaFrance fire engine. Mt. Lebanon’s first “real” fire truck arrived sometime before September 1923. In 1929, with work beginning on the new munici- pal building that would house the fire department along with administrative offices, the Mt. Lebanon Commission approved hiring of two paid firemen. Police officer James Wood transferred into the new department to become the new chief at a salary of $160 per month. David Hasley was appointed assistant fire chief at $150 per month. In 1931, a third paid firefighter, John Richey, was hired, and by 1938, there were four: Wood, still chief; George Prince, hired as assistant chief in 1933 after Richey’s death, replacing Hasley, who remained as a firefighter; and Raymond Goettel, who was to become Mt. Lebanon’s longest-serving fire chief. Mt. Lebanon Fire Department On April 21, 1930, an ordinance was passed establishing the department of public safety, and commands of the fire department and the police department, headed by Chief Charles Baldwin, were joined. By 1938, the fire department’s 20th anniversary, the ranks of active volunteers had grown to 32, and the department was awaiting arrival of its fourth truck, purchased once again from American LaFrance, for $16,400. The state-of-the- art pumper carried a 1,250-gallon main tank, with a booster tank of 150 gallons, and could put out as much as 1,000 gallons per minute. From the firemen’s point of view, however, the most significant improvements were an enclosed cab and the fact that nine men could ride inside the truck. An effusive Pittsburgh Press story from February 23, 1938 describes the new piece: “Imagine nine rubber-clad firemen lolling comfort- ably in a sedan as they dash around corners on two wheels going to a fire instead of clinging wildly on the running boards...the nine comfortably-riding firemen will not be sissies or pantywaists, but the nine most alert, quickest-to-get-there members of the Mt. Lebanon department...” Though the public safety concept was expected to improve municipal services, tensions soon became evident. Records show that sometime between 1931 and 1933 David Hasley was demoted from assistant chief to driver, and in 1941, he was dismissed from the department because of “misconduct.” Hasley appealed the dismissal, was reinstated, and at the July 14 commission meeting, Chief Wood was suspended from duty pending a hearing into charges of “maliciously passing on defama- tory information against one of his fellow employees.” Wood eventually was reinstated as well. Matters finally came to a head several years later, on April 21, 1948, when Wood alleged that Hasley had been drinking on duty. All parties agreed that this much happened: About 2 a . m . on April 21, the fire department was called to a house fire at 30 Midway Road. Upon arriving, they found the fire had been extinguished. After this, accounts vary. In his complaint, Wood stated that he found Hasley “staggering around” at the fire station. He further stated that Hasley was un- able to back the truck into its bay, and assistant chief Ray Goettel had to do it for him. Hasley countered with a claim that Wood was on the scene, and he and a number of other firemen were drinking. The civil service commission inves- tigated the event, and on June 8, 1948, found that both Hasley and Wood, along with five other firefighters, paid and volunteer, were drinking at the Mt. Lebanon Fire Department 1950s AND 1960s (Top) In the 1950s and 1960s, the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed large. Fireman James Woods, Jr., center, examines plans for a pos- sible shelter with William O’Mara of St. Bernard Church, left, and Donald Simpson of the Army Corps of Engineers. (Bottom) Makeshift shelters were constructed as part of civil defense drills. scene of the alarm. All were dismissed from the department, and three others were placed on six months probation. The commission appointed Goettel, who had been serving as acting chief since Wood’s suspension on May 10, to assume the post full time. 75 In the 1950s, as global tensions increased, fears of nuclear holocaust were ....... predominant. Mt. Lebanon was no different. Fallout shelters were placed around town, schoolchildren were issued “dog tags” and trained to “duck and cover” when the air raid siren blew. One of the drills was a simulation called the “10-minute drill,” in which students who could get home safely within a 10-minute window were permitted to leave school grounds (because the fallout from downtown Pittsburgh would take about 20 minutes to reach Mt. Leba- non), while the remaining children would use the school as an underground burrow. In 1953, John Herrmann, Mt. Lebanon’s chief of civil defense, held civil de- fense alerts on a monthly basis. One drill involved more than 300 civil defense volunteers. The fire department took an active part in the preparedness drills, placing high-powered sirens around town, consulting with school and municipal officials about the location of public fallout shelters, and a powerful air raid siren was erected atop Washington School. The department under Goettel began to emphasize fire prevention and com- munity outreach. In 1951, the department formed a fire prevention unit, which oversaw the proper storage of flammable materials in houses and businesses, and also tested automatic sprinkler systems. In partnership with Mt. Lebanon schools, the department sponsored fire prevention essay contests, visited class- rooms and hosted visits to the fire station. By 1960, Mt. Lebanon had nine paid firemen and a company of 42 volunteers. Both career and volunteer firemen began taking advantage of a countywide fire academy, located at North Park, which provided training that helped them adapt to their expanding role. The introduction of a variety of hazardous chemicals and new polymers now required firefighting strategies to extend beyond the traditional “surround and drown” philosophy. Goettel retired June 30, 1972, and was succeeded by Steve Walther, who con- tinued Goettel’s emphasis on training and public awareness of fire hazards. During his tenure, Walther was instrumental in developing and implementing Mt. Lebanon’s first building and fire prevention code, and in adapting national codes to fit local circumstances. Walther retired in 1990, and was replaced by 13-year veteran Steve Darcangelo. 76 For more than 20 years, Mt. Lebanon’s fire chiefs have worked with the police ....... department and other municipal officials toward the goal of a new public safety facility that would provide adequate room for modern equipment, effective maintenance and on-site training. That goal will finally be in 2002, when Mt. Lebanon’s new state-of-the-art public safety building opens. policing the streets Mt. Lebanon’s police department has similarly evolved from reactive to proac- tive over the years. Mt. Lebanon’s first police chief, Charles Baldwin, was appointed in July 1922, and served until May 1930. In 1922, the force consisted of Baldwin and seven officers. He was succeeded by William Kane in January 1931, who remained in the post nine years, retiring in January 1940. In the 1920s and 1930s, a local policeman would have known nearly everybody in town by name, and even as Mt. Lebanon grew, the department retained its small-town, friendly posture. Day-to-day policing seldom involved much high drama—moving violations, security at high school football games, and traffic control on Sunday mornings took up a lot of the officers’ time. “Everyone hated to draw St. Bernard’s,” one patrolman recalled. “Traffic was awful.” Traffic was a large part of policework in Mt. Lebanon from the beginning. When the town was formed in 1912, one of the first actions of the founding fathers was to erect speed limit signs throughout the town, even though the au- tomobile population at the time was in the single digits. In 1928, Mt. Lebanon commissioners approved a $458 expenditure for the purchase of a new Harley Davidson motorcycle and two sidecars. Proceeds from the sale of the old cycle, Mt. Lebanon Fire Department ATRIA’S FIRE On the night of August 11, 1951, a fire started in the basement of Atria’s on Beverly Road. The fire quickly spread into one of the biggest blazes the department had ever fought. The store was closed for three months. bought three years earlier, brought in $233, buying the department a new hog for $225. In 1940, Charles Senn assumed the chief ’s slot, and he stayed on the job until January 1954. Later that year, in October, Walter Kunkle was named chief, and he kept the job for nearly 15 years. By 1950, the police force consisted of 27 officers. Routine patrol consisted of settling family fights, rattling door- knobs in the business districts, keeping an eye on strangers and, prior to the formation of Medical Rescue Team South Authority in 1976, ambulance calls. In 1951, 90 percent of arrests in Mt. Lebanon were for violations of the motor vehicle code. Still, a local businessman spotted weaving across the center line after a few too many might have expected a scolding and a police escort home but would not likely have landed in jail. Occasionally, however, the peace was broken. On Friday, January 11, 1952, a man walked into the municipal building at about 5:30 in the afternoon. He had attracted police attention in the small town simply by being new to the area, Patrolman George Kachurik later told reporters. He was asked for identification, and produced ID bearing the name John J. Reynolds. While talking to police officers, the man fainted and was car- ried into the fire department for first aid. While awaiting treatment, he pulled a .45 caliber pistol from his jacket and ordered Lt. James Potts, Sgt. George Geissinger and Fireman Jack Whitehead onto the floor. The gunman, who turned out to be ex­-convict John Cehovsky, was wanted on a parole violation after serving 10 years in Oregon for a kidnaping conviction. With his captives on the floor, Cehovsky stole Potts’ gun and fled, leading police Gene Puskar MANHUNT An ex-con who was planning a string of robberies in the South Hills put Mt. Lebanon on the front page in January 1952. John Cehovsky, also known as John Reynolds and Clyde Barnett, had been casing possible burglary and armed robbery targets in Pittsburgh and the southern suburbs. Think- ing police were onto his plans, Cehovsky left a trail of bullets from Washington Road to Bridgeville. on a chase that lasted seven hours and involved more than 100 cops from 10 communities. On Florida Avenue, Cehovsky tried to commandeer a car driven by Country Club Drive resident Mrs. Raymond Pierson. Unsuccessful, Cehovsky fired four shots at the car, but Mrs. Pierson was unharmed. Running down Magnolia 77 Place to Baywood Avenue, he tried to ....... carjack Baywood resident Frank Bai- ley, who pulled away but was injured when a bullet from Cehovsky’s gun showered him with broken window glass. At about 8:40 that night, Cehovsky finally succeeded in stealing a car, or- dering Duquesne Drive resident G.E. Wilson out of his vehicle at gunpoint while Wilson was filling up at a service station on Cochran Road. A few blocks away, at Cochran and Bower Hill roads, Cehovsky encountered Patrolman Arthur Seifert in a police car. While attempting to back up, Cehovsky rammed a bus, and as Seifert approached, Cehovsky exchanged gunfire with him and patrolman Jack Meinen. No one was hit, but Cehovsky found himself once again on foot, taking off over wooded areas through Green Tree and Crafton before finally being apprehended in Bridgeville at about 1 a . m . Cehovsky later told police he had been casing stores and other burglary targets in Pittsburgh and the South Hills. A search of his Dormont apartment revealed another pistol, 250 rounds of ammunition and a bulletproof vest. The next time guns blazed in Mt. Lebanon was a hot and lazy summer after- noon, Thursday, July 23, 1959. The Peoples First National Bank in Hays, a small town on the Monongahela River near Homestead, had been robbed by two men, and an extensive chase was under way. By the time the chase was finished, officers from Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, Castle Shannon, Allegheny TRAINING AND EQUIPMENT (Top) Mt. Lebanon firefighters practiced first aid and resuscita- tion, (Bottom) Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Stanley Cain tests out one of Mt. Lebanon Police Department’s first radio cars in this undated photo. At about 2 p . m . Joseph Gaito and Edward Kern, faces covered with shoe polish, entered the bank, one with a rifle and the other with a revolver. Nine customers were herded into a corner, while tellers were instructed to hand over the money. The robbers fled with about $26,000. A bank employee noted the license number and identified the getaway car as a four-door black Ford. Mt. Lebanon Patrolman William Symsek, in the communication center, 78 received the Pittsburgh police broadcast describing the robbers and the car. ....... Roadblocks were quickly set up. In the meantime, the bandits drove out of the city limits through Castle Shannon. They were spotted by Patrolman Robert McCrea, stationed at Mt. Lebanon and Castle Shannon Boulevard, who gave chase. McCrea noticed the license plate had a different number and was held on by new temporary clips, so he radioed Symsek, who relayed the information to Dormont and Green Tree police. Gaito and Kern sped down Castle Shannon Boulevard onto Washington Road, where Dormont Police Chief Ralph Miller blocked the bank robbers’ car and ordered them out. However, before Miller could act, a tractor trailer that was close to Gaito’s car moved at the light and Gaito swung quickly into the third lane and turned down McFarland Road. McCrea turned his car around in hot pursuit when the first of many shots were fired at him. He soon was joined by Officers Barry Jones and Dave Nanz who quickly pulled up behind him in a second Mt. Lebanon patrol car. The chase continued as the afternoon traffic increased. Helicopters kept track of the criminals while ambulances from surrounding communities were dis- patched. Cops and robbers sped down McFarland Road, onto McMonagle Avenue and then Greentree Road. Along the way about 20 more shots were fired. The rob- bers kept firing until they hit a roadblock set up by Green Tree police in front of the municipal building. Kern, who was driving the stolen car, evaded the roadblock by cutting through the Mobil station on the corner. As he made the turn, Nanz fired and shot through the back window of the fleeing car. Shattered Mt. Lebanon Police Department Mt. Lebanon Fire Department County, the state police and the FBI would lend a hand. Mt. Lebanon Police Department FIRE MEMORIAL U.S. Rep. James Fulton, right, and Fire Chief Raymond Goettel at the dedication of the Mt. Lebanon Police and Fireman’s Memorial. glass hit McCrea, who was close behind in the other car. When the robbers turned right onto Verna Street, a dead end, they leapt out of their car and began firing at the three Mt. Lebanon officers. Gaito was shot in the thigh by Jones. Kern, meanwhile, kept firing as they climbed into the brush and hilly terrain of Chicken Hill. Mt. Lebanon police were pinned down and unable to continue fire. Police from Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, Green Tree, Castle Shannon and the City of Pittsburgh converged from all sides. As shots rang out from the hillside, police 79 returned fire from behind trees, telephone poles and cars. ....... Gaito and Kern, intent on escape, moved further into the brush and came upon two Pittsburgh policemen, Anthony Paga and Robert W. Thompson. The pair opened fire on the officers, seriously wounding them. The shooting ended after about two hours. Gaito, shot in the hip, staggered down the hill with his hands up over his head. Shortly afterward, Kern ceased firing. The trapped Mt. Lebanon police began to crawl forward only to realize the robbers had escaped into the thicket. They continued their search for them and were soon joined by Kunkle and Kauper who arrived along with Pittsburgh patrolman John Abbot, who helped capture Kern. “During the chase, I had to watch where I was shooting, especially when we reached the dead end,” said Nanz. “We couldn’t shoot because we were afraid that the children may be used as hostages or shot by the flying bullets. So, we tried to get them to go to their homes or at least leave the area.” Nanz, Symsek, Jones and McCrea, along with Captain John Kauper and Chief Walter Kunkle, were honored by Mt. Lebanon and the City of Pittsburgh for their quick action and bravery in the apprehension of the Chicken Hill bandits. In fact, the incident created such national attention that United Artists Televi- sion later filmed the dramatic holdup and capture of the criminals. Producers contacted all the players in the Chicken Hill Case. The incident was reenacted on “Lawbreakers,” a 30-minute real-life police drama on NBC. All the roles were played by officers who took part in the chase and subsequent capture of the bank robbers. In July of 1969, Geissinger, veteran of the Cehovsky incident, took over from Kunkle and ran the department until his retirement in April 1972. Upon Geissinger’s retirement, the department broke with a longstanding tradi- tion of hiring from within, when it reached all the way across the country to hire 80 David Varrelman from the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department, where ....... he had served for 15 years as a community outreach officer, narcotics detective and deputy commander. Under Varrelman, who held the chief ’s job nearly 18 years, longer than any other chief, the police and fire departments combined emergency dispatching into a single unit, one of the first such dispatch centers in the country. Also under Varrelman the department became one of the first in the area to institute a formal professional training program, where senior officers are trained to become field training officers. New officers serve with a number of field training officers during their probation, and are evaluated by each one. In July 1990 Varrelman left Mt. Lebanon to become chief of security for the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Airport Authority, which encompasses Dulles and National airports. He was succeeded in Mt. Lebanon by Frank Brown, under whose tenure the department expanded the field training program and instituted more stringent training requirements for both supervisors and offi- cers. Mt. Lebanon officers were trained in a variety of areas, including terrorist response, hostage negotiation and locating missing children. Brown retired in July of 1998 and was succeeded by Tom Ogden. One of Ogden’s first acts as chief was to promote closer communication among all of Mt. Lebanon’s emergency departments. Another priority was the formation of a Special Response Team (SRT), a core of specially trained officers for response to catastrophic incidents. Both policies paid off early. On the afternoon of Friday, April 28, 2000, the fire department was called to the scene of a house fire on Elm Spring Road in Virginia Manor. Arriving at the scene, firefighters found the body of gunshot victim Anita “Nicky” Gordon, 63. When notified of the shooting, Ogden was at Scott Towne Center assisting Scott police, where two people had been shot in an Indian grocery. Ogden headed for the murder scene, and in keeping with department policy, called in Allegheny County at about 2:15. The FBI also was notified, and a state police helicopter was dispatched. Mt. Lebanon schools were notified to “protect in place,” or retain the students, a policy that police and school administrators developed this year to protect students in various sorts of situations, including weather emergencies. Students remained in their schools, as police in two counties tracked the gunman from the Mt. Lebanon/Scott/Carnegie area, where the gunman also defaced two synagogues, to Robinson Town Centre, where two employees of an Asian restaurant were shot, to Center Township, Beaver County, where a man was shot at a karate school. In response to the synagogue incidents, Mt. Lebanon police were sent to Temple Emanuel as a precaution; that temple sustained no damage. In Robinson, a bystander got the license number of the suspect’s black Jeep Cherokee; a check revealed that the car was registered to 34-year-old Richard Baumhammers, Anita Gordon’s next-door neighbor. Police notified individu- als and places they anticipated Baumhammers might be heading. Fortunately, Baumhammers was apprehended a few minutes later by Aliquippa police, where he remained in custody until he was brought to Allegheny County for arraignment. The entire incident took less than two hours. In his first year as chief, Ogden secured more than $65,000 in grants from federal and state agencies that have been used to upgrade equipment, expand training, implement new community education programs and ensure better community security. The new public safety building should provide both police and fire departments with ample space to continue to upgrade and improve community services.