Some time about 1907, the town of Eagle purchased a hose cart, the idea being taken from Minturn, a town at the other end of our valley, which had several horse drawn fire carts. The citizens of Minturn would keep the carts at their homes and in the event of fire would take the carts and meet neighbors and friends and try to put the fire out. This was the step that Eagle needed to take.

Since there were no large fires in Eagle for several years following the purchase of the hose cart, interest was lax and the issue of fire protection, training, or organization was never fully addressed. Around the time period of 1920 -1923, several large fires in neighboring towns raised interest again. Glenwood Springs lost 15 buildings in a residential neighborhood. Minturn had a large fire that destroyed 5 buildings in its business district. Redcliff had a fire which destroyed most of the structures in town.

In 1923, The Eagle town board held a special meeting to disscuss the potential of a large fire occurring and what it would take to organize a fire company. The vote was unanimous, a volunteer fire company was needed. The town board allocated $279.50 to fund the department and a brand new fire truck, a La France chemical engine, was ordered from the Julius Pearce Company in Denver. With a forty gallon capacity, a hand manipulated chemical tank, and one hundred fifty feet of hose, this new engine was the cream of the crop at that time. The new engine would arrive in Eagle sometime between June 1927 and November of 1929.

In a follow up meeting by the town board on July 8, 1924 the Eagle Volunteer Fire Company was established. W. M. Wilson was elected fire chief. W. S. Brown became assistant chief, and 33 men volunteered. In the three years that followed, the fire company didn't make much headway as far as training or purchasing new equipment was concerned. Chief Wilson, who was also the sheriff, and a very busy one at that, let the fire department far by the wayside. The equipment was poorly cared for, no training was done and many of the volunteers quit. for those that stayed, the fire department was more of a social gathering and was not taken very seriously.

On November 27, 1927, unsatisfied with the progress made by Wilson, The town decided to reorganize the fire company. M. Cave was elected chief; a captain and two lieutenants were also appointed. The first test was 2 days later when a fire occurred on the Hans Oleson ranch. The fire started in one barn and spread to another. It took the fire company some time to realize that the alarm was real and to muster people and the apparatus, which was stored at a town board members' house. For the last few years unthreatened with any fires, the town had been using the fire alarm to sound when the water in town would be shut off for any period of time. After the initial confusion the apparatus and volunteers rushed to the scene where still only one barn was involved.  Unfortunately the fire company was unable to get water from the hoses, which were frozen due to improper drainage. The hose cart owned by the town had been used to water the grass in the park that summer and had not been drained. Without water all the firefighters were able to do was save the equipment in the barns and all the animals. Two buildings were lost but no one was injured.

Chief Cave took the department a long way. He took his position very seriously and invested much time in training and organization. More men began to volunteer, fundraisers were organized., and the department began to take shape. The first Fireman's Ball was held in Eagle, with plenty of food and dancing for everyone. The firefighters did what they could to entertain the crowd with competitions. The ball was an all around good time and raised money for the company, which was used to purchase more hose and a few tools.

The first big victory for the Eagle fire company occurred December 27, 1929. The vacant building connected to the Enterprise building caught fire in the middle of the night. Witnesses said that flames ten feet in height were coming from the windows on the upper floors. The fire company arrived on scene and quickly used the new chemical engine to extinguish the fire. The buildings connected on either side escaped without damage. The town was very proud of the firefighters and a letter of thanks went out to the volunteers.

On February 13, 1931, the Stacey Ranch was the scene of the next disastrous fire. Even though Chief Cave had been doing a good job of training his firefighters, this would be another loss for the fire company. The Stacey Ranch was just east of Eagle. Three people were home and luckily they all escaped from the fire. The fire broke out in the walls and quickly spread throughout the interior. When the fire department arrived, nothing could be done to battle the blaze due to low water pressure in the high elevation lines. With no lakes or other water sources, there was no water with which to fight the fire. The ranch house and two out buildings were lost.

On January 15th, 1932, the most devastating fire in the history of Eagle occurred in the same block as the fire of 1929, involving the Enterprise Building, McCarthy's Plumbing, and Robertson's Cleaning. The fire originated in the rear of the cleaning business and totally decimated the block of buildings. Everything was against fighting the fire successfully. The towns' siren was frozen and it took several minutes to thaw it before the alarm could be sounded. Also, the equipment, which was maintained by the town, was in such poor condition from lack of proper care, that it took 25 minutes after the alarm was sounded to get water through the hose. The result was the loss of the 3 buildings. The fire fighters showed the result of the quality training that Chief Cave had been promoting, by straightening out the mess the town had made of the apparatus and fighting the fire. What could have been a large scale disaster was limited to the one group of buildings. The Eagle Volunteer Fire Company was able to save the rest of the business district. From witness accounts the nearby buildings repeatedly caught fire, but the flames were quickly put down by the firefighters. The total loss from this fire was close to $12,000.

No records of any major fires could be found for the next several years.

In 1943, tired of the responsibility, the town the town sold all its fire equipment to the Eagle Volunteer Fire Department and the first makeshift fire station was built by the volunteers.