By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 27, 2025 | It was in an old file cabinet along with many other papers, as I was clearing junk out. At first, the black plastic spiral bound lined paper document seemed of no value. But the title got my attention:
“1971 Log Book for Station #1 Gwinnett Co. Fire Department, Norcross, Georgia.”
Looking through the log, it was a day-by-day detail of what went on at the county’s first fire station, replacing the former Norcross Volunteer firefighters. Included was a roll call of who was on duty, and a note (each day) that the new crew coming on duty made a “truck check out.”
Those who worked the first day (March 29, 1971) included Fire Chief Ray Mattison, Homer Gilstrap, Tom Griffin, Dick Howard and Deputy Chief Richard Garner. The second day, the firemen on duty were Deputy Chief Garner, Jeff Huff, David Roper and Ronald Earwood.
The county fire department came about since the new Western Electric plant at what was then Norcross Tucker Road and Interstate 85 needed fire protection. The county contracted with DeKalb County for this protection for the first two years, while the county fire department was being formed. Former County Commissioner Ray Gunnin of Norcross wrote legislation to form the department, if approved by voters in the Pinckneyville precinct. He included a way how other county precincts could vote to join the district (without additional legislation). Later that year, four other precincts joined and soon after others followed. The county had wall-to-wall fire protection by 1980.
That first day of the department, there were no fire calls. The first visitor to the station was an Allstate insurance agent, Ken Morgan, to see if Edgewood North was included in the district. It was. The other visitor that day was Commissioner Gunnin, stopping by at 10 p.m.
The first fire call came on March 30, at 9 a.m. at 1000 South Buford Highway, where a liquid asphalt truck was on fire, which was extinguished. On the return to the station, Garner and Roper “cleaned the truck.” Another call came at 1:57 p.m. for a grass fire on Goshen Springs Road.
While the fire department was to serve the Norcross area, it responded to other emergencies. On April 23, 1972, a driver was trapped in his car on I-85 near the Panasonic building. Though giving assistance, the driver was dead on arrival at the Duluth hospital.
On August 10, Chief Mattison drove the fire engine to Capitol Ford in Atlanta for repair on the power steering. Meanwhile, the former Norcross volunteer fire truck was temporarily put in service until Truck No. 1 returned. That same day, the department responded at 3:35 p.m. to a truck hung up on the railroad at the Holcomb Bridge Road crossing. Apparently there was no collision, and the fire crew returned to the station at 4:30 p.m.
This log book was full of many mundane listings of the daily activities, and the response to them, even what time each day they had chow.
So, what to do with this early log of the Gwinnett Fire Department?
The City of Norcross had built a fire museum in front of Fire Station No. 1, where it housed its former volunteer fire unit’s truck. We handed over the original station log book to the city, to be preserved there for history.
And where did I get the log? It was from former County Commissioner Minor Corley of Duluth, who gave me a box of his papers from the 1960s. That box of papers proved invaluable when writing the book on the history of the county.
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