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This is an index to 12,129 fire runs made by members of the Mount Clemens Volunteer Fire Department #3 between the dates of August 10, 1908 and December 31, 2011.  False alarms are not included in the index.

There is one significant gap in the records: August 9, 1962 through November 13, 1964.

The index may be searched by surname or business name. This field contains names of owners, tenants or businesses associated with the property named in the fire run record.  The second search form is for searches by street and/or street address.  You may specify a street only, and leave the house number field blank, and the resulting hits will include all fire runs on the specified street.  If you add a house number, the resulting hits will include only those fire runs to the specific address provided.

HINT: When searching by address, enter the main street name ONLY. Do not enter abbreviations such as St., Rd., Blvd., Ave., etc.  For roads or streets with directional indicators, add the directional abbreviation after the street name. For example:

Correct	Incorrect
Gratiot N	N Gratiot, North Gratiot
Groesbeck S	South Groesbeck, S Groesbeck
Cass	Cass Avenue, Cass Ave.
Scott	Scott Blvd., Scott Boulevard

If you do not specify a directional indicator, the database will return all instances of the street name, regardless of direction.  For example, if you enter "Gratiot" you will retrieve all entries for Gratiot N, Gratiot S, Gratiot NB, and Gratiot SB. Street names appear in the index as they appear in the record; for example, Broadway was known as Front Street until 1925. (For a guide to street name changes and discontinued streets in Mount Clemens, click here.)

After you have identified a fire run record that you are interested in, note the volume number and page number from the index entry.  You may view the records on microfilm at Mount Clemens Public Library.  A typical fire run record contains the following information:

Usually contains	May also contain	Does NOT contain
Date	Owner/tenant/business name	Lengthy detail
Address	Brief firefighting details	Damage reports
Type of fire run		Commentary on fire or incident
Names of fire fighters in attendance		Newspaper accounts

Here is a sample of a fire run record from January 18, 1910:

The Mount Clemens Monitor of January 21, 1910, carried this news item about the fire:

Remember that the fire department handles may different kinds of public safety situations, and a fire department run to a specific address may have involved any one of the following incidents: major or minor structure fire, grass, rubbish or brush fire, overheated appliance, downed electric wire, odor investigation, rescue/extraction situation, leaks or spills, automobile accident, first aid, medical emergency or civil defense response.  For more detail about a specific run, use the date from the record to check local newspaper backfiles for coverage of the event.  In the case of a minor incident, newspaper coverage is unlikely and no further records are available.

Back to Mount Clemens Volunteer Fire Department Records Index