> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.wbrindependent.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # After 91 years, Port Allen's volunteer fire department calls it a career - URL: https://www.wbrindependent.com/port-allen-volunteer-fire-department-memorial-91-years/ - Published: 2026-10-28T19:18:25.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T19:18:25.000Z - Description: After 91 years and 227 days, the Port Allen Volunteer Fire Department is done. Its last members spent what was left in the bank on a granite memorial at Centennial Park. It honors every volunteer and the Ladies Auxiliary that fed them after long nights. - Author: John Summers The Port Allen Volunteer Fire Department spent the last of its money on a way to be remembered. Former members gathered at Centennial Park near Port Allen City Hall on Saturday morning, Oct. 24, to unveil a black granite memorial. It honors everyone who served with the department and its Ladies Auxiliary. The ceremony also marked the end of the organization. "In public safety, we have a phrase that we use when someone either retires or is unfortunately killed in line of duty," said Barry Brewer, a former Port Allen city administrator who volunteered with the department for about five decades and led the program. "That phrase is end of watch." "Today the Port Allen Volunteer Fire Department, after 91 years and 227 days, comes to its retirement, or end of watch, as an organization," he said. "It is a bittersweet moment." Brewer said the department was the first officially organized and chartered volunteer fire department in West Baton Rouge Parish. It was also the last. ### Nobody answered the call Brewer said declining membership, driven by changes in society, brought the department to this point. In 2018, the volunteers paid for a mailout to every house in the area they covered, asking for help. "The outcome was several well-intended offers to make cookies for us, which we appreciated, but resulted in not one citizen stepping forward to volunteer," Brewer said. "We realized at that time that our days were numbered." He said the department never recorded a line-of-duty death. ### How it started "We got started like any other volunteer fire department," Brewer said. "There was a fire and something burnt down." On Jan. 4, 1918, a fire wiped out part of Port Allen's business district, including several stores, a school and a barbershop. The town had no fire department. Tugboats from Baton Rouge arrived too late, according to old newspaper accounts. It took until March 11, 1935, for 21 men to form a volunteer department, and the city made it official with Ordinance No. 3\. Brewer said Robert A. Bogan, Baton Rouge's first paid fire chief, helped them organize. The first volunteers had no truck. They used a hose cart kept at Vavasseur's garage, later known as Quick Service Garage. The building still stands across the street from the park. Their first motorized fire truck came in 1942 and cost about $5,300 to outfit, Brewer said. That's roughly $110,000 today. That truck led to a standoff with the parish. The volunteers planned to answer calls outside city limits, so they asked the police jury, the parish's governing body at the time, to help pay for it. The police jury said no. The city then passed a resolution saying its firefighters would stop answering calls outside town until the parish provided a truck of its own. Brewer said the parish got one donated by R.D. Phillips, and the city dropped the resolution. The volunteers also helped pay for City Hall. Brewer said city minutes show the department paid to have plans drawn for a combined city hall and fire station on land the Cohn family donated on North Jefferson. When the building was dedicated in 1954, the volunteers had covered $9,000 of the $20,000 cost. Where that money came from is department lore. Brewer said an old volunteer told him about 35 years ago that it came from a slot machine in the back room of Jack's Place, the Port Allen bar that has been open since 1924. "If you ever go into Jack's, ask 'em where that slot machine is at," he said. "We don't know." Port Allen hired its first paid fire chief and a second firefighter in 1955\. The city had six paid chiefs before its department was consolidated into the parish system in 2014: - Leonard L. Lemoine, 1955 to 1957 - Thomas L. Hebert, 1957 to 1966 - Medric J. Aucoin Jr., 1966 to 1974 - Anthony A. "Ray" Landry, 1974 to 1992 - Steve Lemoine, 1992 to 1999 - Richard P. Boudreaux, 1999 to 2014 Brewer said Hebert left Port Allen to become the first director of LSU's firemen training program, known today as the Fire and Emergency Training Institute. ### The people behind it The ceremony recognized the department's living life members. Under Louisiana State Firemen's Association rules, that title took 20 or 25 years of service, depending on when a member joined. Brewer pointed out several who went on from volunteering to become career firefighters. He also introduced Charles LeBlanc as the department's "firefighter emeritus." Brewer said LeBlanc would turn 92 about 10 days after the ceremony, and that the two share a birthday. The Ladies Auxiliary got its own recognition. It served from 1970 to 2016\. Brewer described rolling back into the station around 6 a.m. after a 2:30 a.m. house fire, with hose to re-rack, gear to clean and a truck to get back in service. "They'd be there with biscuits and coffee for us," he said. The auxiliary made its money selling pies, cakes and raffle tickets at the department's chicken barbecue dinners. It spent that money on kitchen equipment for the barbecues and on holiday baskets for families in need. The memorial's inscription names the auxiliary alongside the firefighters. ### Who paid for it When members decided to disband, Brewer said, they still had a little over $20,000 in the bank. They "talked it around," he said, and decided to do something permanent. The memorial cost $23,000, according to the program: - $20,601.67 from the volunteer department, which Brewer's program notes say emptied its bank account - $2,000 from the Port Allen City Council - $398.33 from private donors The council approved its share 5-0 on Nov. 12, 2025, through a cooperative endeavor agreement, a contract that lets the city put public money toward a project with a public purpose. [WBR Independent reported on that vote](https://www.wbrindependent.com/port-allen-council-approves-2000-for-firefighter-memorial-despite-heated-debate/), and on [the volunteers' original request](https://www.wbrindependent.com/remaining-port-allen-volunteer-firefighters-ask-city-for-final-memorial/). The volunteers had asked for up to $3,500\. Councilwoman Charlene Gordon moved for $2,000, the limit the council had set for donations to any organization. Councilman Garry Hubble argued for an exception and said he was prepared to cover the difference himself. At the ceremony, Brewer thanked council members Adrian Joseph, Charlene Gordon, Gregory Payne, Garry Hubble and April King for passing the resolution. Hubble later rounded up the private donations that closed the gap. The donors were Peter and Robin Hurst; retired Port Allen police dispatcher Jane Harris; city HR director and payroll clerk Tamika Derson; Police Chief Donovan Mitchell; at-large Councilmember Adrian Joseph; District 3 Councilman Garry Hubble; Lennette Lasseigne, secretary to the mayor; and Mayor Terecita Pattan. Former Chief Steve Lemoine, Charles LeBlanc, Ted Denstel and Henry Melancon pulled the cover off the monument. Grant Memorials, on Court Street, made it. Charles Diffey, chief of the Port Allen Volunteer Fire Department, led the Pledge of Allegiance. The memorial stands beside the gazebo at Centennial Park. Its inscription ends: "Though their names are many and their stories countless, this tribute stands for them all." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/51/6a511428-8a9f-41ee-af8a-da977e82f00e/content/images/2026/10/IMG_61062-renewed.jpeg) **Former members of the Port Allen Volunteer Fire Department gather at the new memorial at Centennial Park on Oct. 24\. (Photo: WBR Independent)* ### Life members The living life members recognized at the ceremony were: - Jeremy Aguillard - Richard P. Boudreaux - William "Willie" Bourg - Barry Brewer - Harold Brown - Thomas "Ted" Denstel - Charles Diffey - Randolph "Scotty" Doyle - Kathy Guidry - Tim Hebert - Jason Henderson - Matthew Hillyard - Charles LeBlanc - Daniel "Danny" LeBlanc - Steve Lemoine - Gerald Mann - Henry Melancon - Kenneth Pitre Sr. - Calvin Sevario - Chad Smith - Anthony J. Summers - David Toussaint - Sonjua Vallet Travasos Derbes - Mark Travasos - Emile White *Disclosure: WBR Independent editor John Summers was a member of the Port Allen Volunteer Fire Department from 2016 to 2025.*