this shed. When there was a fire, the pumper and hose were loaded onto a half-ton truck and drove to the fire. At that point in time St. Peters Bay was not incorporated as a village and all the fire department could do to raise money was to go from door to door requesting donations.

B.J. O’Hanley, the longest serving member of the fire department, was fire chief in St. Peters for fifteen-years. In 1953, the second fire hall building* was purchased from Bill Sanderson from the Church Road who had used the building as a garage. At this time the department used a six-wheel army truck, which had been purchased from the Army Base in Gagetown, New Brunswick. This was later replaced by an old oil truck with a water tank on it, and in 1963 by a forestry truck.

ST. PETERS BAY AMBULANCE

Many younger people within the community today would be surprised to hear that at one time, St. Peters Bay had its own ambulance service. Purchased in 1968, the ambulance remained in service until 1971. After the death of a man in the community, who had to wait for an hour and a half for an ambulance to arrive from another community, the fire department decided that, if there had of been an ambulance within the community, that particular man might have survived. An ambulance was purchased by the Village Commission after it was requested by the fire department. It was stationed at the fire department, and members of the fire department volunteered their time and drove all of the eighty- eight trips the ambulance made to Charlottetown during those years. Pauline O’Hanley, who operated the telephone switchboard at that time, and was often the person who received the calls requesting the ambulance. Her husband, B.J., therefore ended up going on eighty of eighty—eight trips the ambulance made:

The ambulance went to Bear River, Morell, Morell Rear, Lakeside. and all around the area. It was an old blue station wagon with a stretcher in the back. The station wagon was bought at the MacSwain Service Station for six hundred dollars. Members of the department went into Cutcliffe Funeral Home and took a course for driving the ambulance, learning what to do, and what not to do in an emergency. Often local nurses in the area came on those ambulance trips, such as Theresa King from the North Side. There were three car accidents where people were killed and in other cases, there were three people who had drowned. One of the most memorable trips was when a baby was born in the ambulance. On the way into Charlottetown, on the Marie Bridge, we hit a big bump on the bridge and heard WAA-WAA. The baby was born and we continued into town. The price of taking the ambulance was fifteen

* This building was located on the site of the present “Anne of Red Doors Restaurant."

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