The Park City Fire District is set to celebrate their 50th anniversary this fall. What follows is an excerpt from an oral history with Jim Berry, the first paid full-time fire chief for the Fire District and a descendant of several other Park City Fire Chiefs (including the first ever one), from July 2022.
Jim first worked as a volunteer firefighter in Park City.
“When I graduated from high school in ‘48, I was able to join the fire department in September of ‘48 at 18. I was really a full-time fireman because I was working for the city and available right there at the fire station most of the time. We found a nice apartment at Scott’s Apartment on Main Street about three or four doors down from City Hall. I was close at night to get to the fire station.”
Jim and his wife eventually decided to move down to Salt Lake City.
“Then we moved to Salt Lake, and I went to work for Western Airlines. But just before that, I had taken the test for the fire department. We moved out in March and June they had the test. They only gave that every two years. I was lucky to be able to take the test. I passed number 11 out of 250. I went right to work for Western Airlines and worked all through the winter of ‘51. … I went to the Salt Lake Fire Department on the first of May in ‘52.”
After a long time in the fire department in Salt Lake, and working his way up to captain, Jim turned to training and education to certify new firefighters and work as a consultant for departments around the state.
“I ended up in Park City training the girls at Summit Park. There’s an article in the Park Record about that. I was quite surprised. They were all good. They had that old shed up there at Summit Park. It was in the winter – fall – and it was cold in there – every Saturday for twelve weeks. We went out and did some exercises too – laying out hose and everything. They all did very well, and I graduated all of them.”
Not long after that (in 1983), Jim was asked to help out in Park City, which had recently established a fire district for the area, but needed help organizing everything.
“When I was offered the job of Fire Chief, I had just completed 30 years on the job. Actually, I was running the fire department for six months before I was Chief. I got called up there when they had the big fire on Main Street. I got called up and took over the fire. I got them set up and got the fire down and saved Main Street.”
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, Park Record Collection
While Jim had never organized an entire department or district before, he was excited about the challenge to improve his hometown’s firefighting abilities. He set up the first full time crews and shifts for the district.
“That was quite a job. I got them all organized and the first thing I did was build a new fire station in Summit Park and organize them out there. I had a good crew out there. Most of them were retired so they were available right away. I promoted one of the guys out there to Assistant Chief and one to Captain. Then we got the second story built on the station on Park Avenue. I put a 24-hour crew there. We made the kitchen facilities and the dormitory offices and everything. I got three shifts, A, B, and C and I put in a Captain, a driver, and a fireman on each shift. There were three people there that could go immediately and kept the equipment there. I took the fire department from a 10-minute response to a 30-second response. We had a good department.”
Of course, they were fighting fires the whole time he was getting things going. There were several notable fires during his tenure, including the Union Pacific Depot arson case.
“We had some dandy fires, I’ll tell ya. Richard’s ranch in Snyderville. We saved that. We lost the building that was on fire, but we saved the structures that we around it. Then we had the lodge up in Deer Valley. We were up there for 36 hours on that fire. The building was valued at $16 million, and we only did about $2 to $3 million in damage. We saved three quarters of the building. I had a good record when I was the Fire Chief. I was proud of that crew.”
Jim’s tenure ended with some squabbling with the Fire Commission, but the politics of the job were just an excuse – Jim was just ready to finally retire in 1985 after more than thirty years on the job.
“I was up there to organize the fire department, which I did. I did my job. And we were ready to come home [to Salt Lake City].”
Congratulations to the Park City Fire District on hitting 50 years!