Prior to the formation of the Flanders Fire Department, The Hampton Bays Fire Department covered the area. a small group of residents formed the Flanders Fire Department in 1948 to prevent the kind of tragedy that no community should bear. In December 1947, a fire broke out in a Bay Avenue home, The Hampton Bays fire departments responded driving one truck into the bay to pump water onto and extinguish the flames. Despite their best efforts a mother and her two sons perished in the fire. It was that fire that spurred the formation of the Flanders Fire Department. Three months later the First meeting was held to organize the Department at Harold Murray's house on the corner of Flanders Road and Evergreen Road. By 1949 the Departments first fire truck a 1931 Brockway Pumper was donated by Fox's Salvage Yard which was located were We Got It Auto Parts sits.
Firefighters held their first meetings either at the Bay View Market in Flanders or at the homes of volunteers. In 1950,Ted Havens who owned the duck farm across from what is now the firehouse donated a parcel of land off Flanders Road to the department and, three years later, the firehouse was completed.
The building itself was constructed by 35 to 40 fire department members at the time. In the interim the trucks were housed at the Centralia Bakery which was located where the David W. Crohan Community Center sits now and at the Blue Barn on the corner of Chauncey Road and Flanders Road. For its first ten years the department was funded entirely by contributions. In 1958 The Flanders Fire District was formed using tax money to fund the department for the first time.
Today, the 46-member fire department carries on that legacy, dedicating endless hours to protecting the hamlet’s residents, despite the regular challenges it faces. The department has three Chiefs vehicles, two class "A" pumpers, two heavy rescue trucks, a 3000 gallon tanker, two brush trucks, a high water rescue truck, a fire boat, and a fire patrol pickup. The Department protects about 2500 homes and about 2000 year round residents. About 68 percent of the land in the District is publicly owned parkland leaving the District with a smaller tax base and a budget that is smaller than most other fire Districts.
