Pittsburgh Township Council had wrestled with the problem of fire protection for it's rate payers for years. We had depended on service from adjoining municipalities but were at the whim of their availability and the hope that once they were fighting a fire in our township that they would not be needed in, and called back, to their own area. On October 1, 1955, seventy volunteers started training, in the old town hall in Barriefield, under the guidance of Herbert Mallory of the Fire Marshal's Office. Sydney Taylor offered his services and was appointed the Department's first Chief by Council.