Prairie Grove Fire Department: 50 years of firefighting

The year is 1974 and your neighbor’s house is on fire south of Buffalo. Who are you going to call? The only rural fire department active in the area south of Buffalo at that time was the brand new Prairie Grove Rural Volunteer Fire Department. Volunteers from the Amish-Mennonite Community had been responding to area fires for some time before the former Buffalo fire chief, Noel Shaw, suggested they obtain a truck from the “forestry” division, which is now the Missouri Department of Conservation. They did receive the truck and have continued to serve the rural Dallas-Polk area and beyond since then.