Let’s head back to the January 1961 pages of the Optimist when a story ran on the retirement of a long-time fire chief.
William Godfrey Grove, better known to his many friends in Delta as Bill Grove, retired from his job as chief of the North Delta Volunteer Fire Department after 14 years.
He was one of the organizers of the North Delta Ratepayers Association and had been appointed by the association as a temporary fire chief in 1946. He was subsequently asked to form a department and ended up as its chief.
The department started with six men and its first fire truck was a 1928 model.
At the time, there was no fire hall to house the truck, so it was kept in a private garage until Delta council built a fire hall on Scott Road.
When he retired, he said that the present volunteer department in North Delta with 24 volunteer firefighters and two trucks was “the best little fire department in the Fraser Valley.”
A tireless advocate for North Delta, Grove ran as a candidate for council and school board, but wasn’t elected.
