Mathews Volunteer Fire Department’s new Station 4 building at Cobbs Creek was packed Sunday with firefighters, dignitaries and guests celebrating the station’s grand opening and 50th anniversary.

MVFD president Calvin Morgan served as master of ceremonies, welcoming guests and introducing speakers, and the Rev. Jim Ritter—a moving force in establishing the fire station in 1964—gave the opening prayer and blessing of the station.

Station Captain Danny Howlett introduced the station’s charter members who are still living—Winder Gayle, Gerald Lewis, Robert Minter Lewis, Warren Shipley and Ritter—and shared a bit of the station’s history, along with stories about happenings over the years.

The station crew organized in 1963, said Howlett, and the first fire truck was a 1945 Ford pumper with a 500-gallon tank. Since there was no station at first, the truck had to be housed in Station Chief Coles Diggs’s garage.

“If I remember r...