The same year Sister Bay is incorporated, fire nearly destroys the entire Village despite efforts of the community’s energetic, albeit sole means of fire fighting – bucket brigades.

The Sister Bay Village Board approves a search for fire fighting equipment (April 1930) and shortly after (June 1930) appoints Adolph Roeser as the first fire chief, eight volunteers as fire fighters and a three-person committee to find storage for equipment. Through the mid 1940s, the Village and Town iron out shared costs of running a fire department while continuing to acquire fire fighting equipment.

The Village votes (June 1947) to build a new fire station and a committee is tasked with a cost analysis covering a host of issues. Questions about implications and opportunities arise – What is the price of new equipment? How much financial assistance can the Town of Liberty Grove provide? Might the new fire station also serve as a post office and generate rent from the federal government?

Tax assessments are earmarked to pay for equipment and a fire commission, comprised of one member from the Village board and two from the Town board, is appointed to serve annually (November 1948). The commission oversees management of department funds. The Town also approves fire chief pay at $50 per year, over/above his fire calls, and payment to the Village of $35 per month for fire truck rental.

Responsibility for funding the fire department, which appeared to be equally shared by the Village and Town in previous years, is increasingly shouldered by the Town with three-quarters of the fire commission budget paid by the Town Liberty Grove (March 1954). By January 1961, a new agreement changes the Town’s share to two-thirds of the fire department’s expenses.

New pagers (September 1980) forever improve the speed volunteer fire fighters are alerted to emergencies. The department adds fire protection to the state’s park system (April 1981) and routine fire inspections (April 1982) for businesses as required by state law. Work beings (April 1994) to establish a fire protection district within boundaries of the town, including the village, and formal organization of SBLGFD passes (September 1994). Studies examine fire safety throughout Northern Door (1997) and the structure of SBLDFD (1998).

The opening of new Ellison Bay and Sister Bay fire stations, both in July 2004, increased the department’s infrastructure footprint while providing much needed, modern space. Combining Northern Door First Responders with SBLGFD (January 2007) and an inter-government agreement between Ephraim and SBLG EMR (January 2016) further strengthened the breadth and depth of the service to the community.