Fire Department

The Go Devil Hook & Ladder Company had an engine house somewhere along main street across from Tinto's Barber Shop. The building was 20 x 40 ft, two stories in height. It housed the equipment of the fire department along with meeting rooms for the department and borough officials.

"Although Duke Centre has so far been extremely fortunate in regard to the visits of the fiery fiend, still protection against a possible invasion of the devouring element was necessary; and at the time of writing, this borough can boast of a hook and ladder company and bucket brigade and a hose company, both of which are being well equipped by the citizens to fight any fire that may occur in the future. Messrs. C. G. Cook, Clark Way, H. B. Spencer and J. S. Safford are deserving of credit for their efforts in staring these companies and the citizens have nobly responded to their appeals for the requisite funds to equip them.
A number of our prominent men also conceived the idea of laying a water line through the borough to be supplied by a twelve hundred barrel tank to be placed on a hill at a sufficient elevation to throw a heavy stream over any building in town. The pipe is now being laid and the tank built. When the work is accomplished, Duke Centre will have a thorough water works system and as efficient means of extinguishing fire as any borough in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Messrs. J. B. McElwaine, B. F. Moulton and W. H. Longwell have been the leading spirits in this enterprise and a large amount of money has been collected by them and to be applied upon the work. All our citizens cheerfully responding to the call."

-excerpt from History of Duke Centre in 1880.