Radnor Chemical Corporation history

And so, in 1907 Radnor township acquired its first piece of automobile equipment, to be followed only a year later by a second piece.

Of this motorized fire engine “The Fireman’s Herald”, under date of August 4, 1908, says:

The picture illustrating this week’s column was taken in June, 1911, after the Radnor Fire Company had for several years been the proud possessor of its first two pieces of gasoline-propelled fire fighting equipment.

January 10, 1912, a bitter cold day, saw the first of three disastrous conflagrations at then Villanova College.

On December 30, 1914, the old Opera House in Wayne burned to the ground.

In January of 1916, a new firehouse was under construction at the same location and by April meetings and other functions were being held there.

In August 1918, a shortage of coal resulted in the closing of the town steam plant, which left the fire company whistleless until a new whistle was mounted on top of the firehouse.

Before the Wayne Neighborhood League occupied its present quarters on West Wayne avenue, it was also housed in this building, which was not destroyed until its site was needed for the first unit of the present High School building, erected in 1923.

On January 29, 1928 a fire, whipped by a strong and gusty wind, gutted College Hall at Villanova.

On May 6, 1929 a distinguished new fire company member was elected – Dinty, a wirehaired fox terrier, became the company’s mascot.

A new era for the fire company began in 1932 with the purchase of a LaFrance engine costing $13,500.

And in 1947 Earl Frankenfield, a member of the company, died after fighting a fire at Liggett’s drug store.

Hurricane Hazel felled something like a thousand trees in 1954 and the fire company lent a hand to clear the streets and highways of the area.

Fire destroyed the Thomas Memorial Gymnasium at Valley Forge Military Academy on August 2, 1957 and on the same weekend a smaller fire was extinguished in Hamilton Hall.

In 1963 the firehouse was altered and enlarged to house a new apparatus.

In 1968, the Ambulance Division reported answering 577 calls and traveling 13,000 miles in doing so.

A crowd of over two thousand residents watched a spectacular fire at St Mary’s Episcopal Church in Wayne on July 17, 1969.

The record for April 1979 showed that the Radnor Fire Company had answered 392 calls in the previous year.

In 1989 and in compliance with newly introduced regulations Radnor was licenced by the Health and Safety Executive as an explosive factory site for the manufacture and storage of explosives.

In May of 1996, the fire company packed up and moved out to a temporary location, up the street at the AT&T lot.