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Ronny Coleman and Ray Russell,
the founders of Phenix Technology, entered the career
fire service in 1963. Both developed a strong interest
in the history and traditions of this occupation. Both
men started collecting fire service memorabilia a short
time after entering the profession. After meeting in 1968
they started Phenix Technology and developed their first
fire helmet. Between them they had amassed a collection
of fire helmets, both foreign and domestic, numbering
in the hundreds. These helmets were the basis for designing
their new helmet. They took the best ideas of several
helmets in the collection and came up with their contemporary
line of "First Due Fire Helmets" which has been
produced since 1969.
Over
the years Ron and Ray have continued building this collection
to include not only helmets, but also buckets, badges,
nozzles, hand drawn fire apparatus, early fire equipment
and a large collection of fire service toys. They also
included fire service and management books in their
collection amassing one of the largest fire department
related libraries west of the Mississippi River.
When
Phenix moved into their new building in 2001, it included
a large room to display this collection and a second
room to serve as a reference library. This forms the
basis for the Phenix Technology Fire Museum. The museum
is open to the public and includes many pieces of antique
fire memorabilia.
There
are 290 fire helmets dating back to 1780. Many of these
helmets came from foreign countries, including one from
Russia dating back to 1890. We also display over a thousand
toy fire apparatus, many of them from foreign manufactures.
The
museum is open during business hours (Monday - Friday
9am-4pm) and can also be opened by appointment.
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