Did you know that the Mattydale Fire Department was the original home of the Onondaga County Fire Control?

In 1940 the Mattydale Firemen and their apparatus moved to the present location on East Molloy Road and Mitchell Ave. and a full time dispatcher was then hired to answer the phone and alert firemen whenever the need arose.
His duties besides answering the fire phone included checking the apparatus and maintaining the building and grounds in a specified manner.

In the late 1940's radio communications started to become a useful tool of the fire service. At that time the county Board of Supervisors took advantage of the full time dispatcher employed by the Mattydale Fire Commissioners and asked them if the Fire Control Center could be housed in Mattydale. A financial arrangement was reached where upon the County Fire Control Center was then housed in the Mattydale Fire Station until years later when it was relocated to Onondaga Hill.

Pictured below is Ken Benson, a former member and dispatcher