Fire and rescue: the Clay Fire Territory whole

1947–2027 · CHIEF AND STATIONS AS OF NOVEMBER 11, 2026

Granger's fire service began as two township departments and is now one territory, and the course is the department's own official history, read whole: on June 11, 1947, the Clay Township trustee and his advisory board announced that the township would purchase firefighting equipment and start its own department; in January 1948 the first pumper was delivered and housed in an unused garage at Clay High School, with three full-time firefighters hired and seventy volunteers trained — the first township fire department in St. Joseph County. The department's first station rose at 18776 Cleveland Road — the department history dates the building to 1950; the station's own page records that the school corporation gave notice in 1949 and that a station was built that year; both print, and the Story of Granger section carried 1950. In 1961 a second Clay station was built at 18355 Auten Road. Harris Township's own department served the eastern ground through the volunteer era the trustee's letter remembers — within a couple of decades before 2020 the township's protection was still volunteer — and it is the eastern department whose end this course records. In 2001, facing levy limits that had frozen its firefighter count while call volume rose 450 percent from 1975 to 2000, Clay Township and the incorporated towns of Indian Village and Roseland reorganized the department as the Clay Fire Territory, a taxing territory under Indiana law with Clay Township as its provider unit; the new form funded six additional full-time firefighters in 2002 and nine more in 2006. In 2004 the territory became the first fire department in Indiana accredited by the Center for Public Safety Excellence, a standing it has held through reaccreditations in 2009 and 2014. German Township's department was assumed by interlocal agreement on July 31, 2006, and German Township joined the territory on July 1, 2007, adding six square miles and 7,000 residents. On January 1, 2010, the Harris Township Fire Department joined, adding Harris's unincorporated ground — some 22 square miles and 22,000 residents — and bringing the territory to approximately 52 square miles and 66,000 residents. Harris's two stations came with the merger: its Station 2, at 13981 State Road 23, became Clay Station 4, and its Station 1, at 12481 Anderson Road, became Clay Station 5; in the county's 2013 renumbering the five houses took the numbers they carry now — Station 21, 18776 Cleveland Road, South Bend (battalion headquarters; engine, truck, and medic); Station 22, 18355 Auten Road, South Bend (the territory's administration and the township offices); Station 23, 51775 Portage Road, South Bend, the former German Township station; Station 24, 13981 State Road 23, Granger; and Station 25, 12481 Anderson Road, Granger. The two Granger houses are the old Harris department's, still standing on their own ground under new numbers. On October 1, 2016, the whole service area received an Insurance Services Office classification of Class 2. The territory is governed through a five-member fire commission — Harris Township's own statement of its share is two of the five seats — and is led by its fire chief. The chief's line at the depth the record carries: Timm Schabbel, who joined the Clay Township department in 1989 from Romeoville, Illinois, was promoted to chief in 1997 and served to 2024 — the longest-tenured chief officer in the agency's seventy-five-year history, under whom the territory was formed, accredited, and tripled in area; he retired in early 2024 and received the Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana's highest civilian honor, that February. His assistant chief, Jaren Kilian, succeeded him: Kilian stands as fire chief in the merger coverage of March 2026 and holds the office as of this writing. The exact date of Kilian's appointment, and the names of the chiefs before Schabbel, are carried as named gaps in the closing roll. The territory's next change is already voted: on March 24, 2026, the boards of the seven units — Clay, German, Harris, and Penn townships and Osceola, Indian Village, and Roseland — approved merging the Clay and Penn fire territories into a single territory, still named Clay Fire, effective in 2027; Harris Township's own forward note records that when the boundary change is approved by the state, the fire commission will be reconstituted and its representation may change. The Harris department that began this entry has one more fact owed it: its founding date and volunteer-era course were not found — not in Clay Fire's departmental history, which takes the Harris department up only at the merger, and not in the township's own published history — and the gap the Story of Granger section named stands, re-stated with its search in the closing roll.

Sources:

1. Clay Fire Territory, official department history and station pages, clayfd.com, read first-hand November 2026 (the June 11, 1947 announcement; the January 1948 pumper, the high-school garage, three full-time and seventy volunteer firefighters; the 1950 station and the station page's 1949 building notice; Station 2 of 1961; the levy history and the 2001 territory; accreditation 2004, reaccreditation 2009 and 2014; German Township 2006–2007 with its areas and populations; the Harris merger of January 1, 2010, with its 22 square miles and 22,000 residents and the territory's resulting 52 square miles and 66,000; the station course, addresses, staffing, and 2013 renumbering; the ISO Class 2 of October 1, 2016).
2. Indiana House Republicans, February 21, 2024 (the Sagamore of the Wabash presented to Chief Timm Schabbel; chief 1997–2024, the longest tenure in the agency's 75-year history; joined Clay Township in 1989; Kilian named as assistant chief); Congressional Record, February 23, 2024 (Schabbel's retirement after 35 years with the department).
3. WNDU and South Bend Tribune, March 2026 (the March 24, 2026 merger vote of the seven units; one territory, still Clay Fire, effective 2027; Chief Jaren Kilian).
4. Harris Township official site (the five-person fire commission; Harris's two seats; the pending reconstitution of the board on state approval of the 2026 boundary change).