Our History
Starting in 1938
Halsey Rural FD was established in March of 1938. We had a single fire chief - Frank Gansel. Frank was chief until Halsey merged with Shedd in March of 1952. Both of these FD's operated off donations, and that continued once we were merged until 1985. If you would like to see more information regarding overall Fire Department history across the United States, please visit our Fire Fighter History page.
Halsey Fire Department's first run took place on July 9th, 1938 at 2pm. It was a grass fire, at this time their trucks had no pumps or hoses yet, so they used buckets and burlap bags.
In March of 1952, the Halsey Fire Department merged with the adjoining community of Shedd, combining both Fire Departments into Halsey-Shedd Fire Department.
In August 1969 we had a new Fire Chief - volunteer of course - in Ralph Bjerke.
Throughout the early years, HSFD continued to operate on donations, and volunteer time. We were finally able to pay our Fire Chief - George Jamison - in 1985.
In 1995, Halsey-Shedd Rural Fire Department was named "Best in State".
From bottom left: Guy Miller, Randy Lepard
From top left: Jeff Kropf, Skip Smith