Layton City: 47 years with a volunteer fire department

Layton's first fire engine was housed in a garage on Gentile Street for a few years, starting in 1929.
                                                                        (Photo from Heritage Museum of Layton's Collection.)

BACK in 1949, Layton City still had a volunteer fire department.

“Layton volunteers on day-night call” was a March 25, 1949 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.

Layton was a community of about 3,600 residents in 1949 and relied on a volunteer fire department of 12 men, serving under Fire Chief Zulon Whitesides. The other volunteers included: Sherm Taylor, Dale Gray, Dick Cook, Clay Adams, Floyd Parkin, Marion Bair, Don Shurtz, Walter Smedley, Dave Clawson, Ray Walker and Jim Briggs – according to the Telegram story.

In the year 1948, the volunteer Layton Fire Department answered 35 alarms and utilized two fire trucks.

Layton’s Fire Department was organized in 1928 and it remained a volunteer group until 1975.

                A Layton City Fire Truck from the early 21st Century.