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Fire and Public Safety
New Carlisle protected itself for a century and a half the small-town way and then, in five years, rebuilt the whole system. The protection era opens with a mutual horse-thief association in 1853 whose riders held constable's authority; the fire course runs through an all-volunteer department that served the town, Olive Township, and Hudson Township in La Porte County until call volume outgrew it; and the modern course is a three-unit fire protection territory created in 2020, expanded in 2022, staffed around the clock from a remodeled station at 204 East Michigan Street — with the volunteer department that raised it formally disbanded in 2023. The marshal's department runs the parallel course in miniature, from an ordinance-book mention in 1991 to a full-time chief deputy turned marshal in 2024. The department's fallen firefighter is named and told whole: Assistant Chief Jamie Middlebrook, killed in the line of duty on 5 August 2014.
Before the department — the Terre Coupee Anti-Horse-Thief Association, 1853–54
1853–1880 · CHAPMAN FIRST-HAND
The first protection institution on this ground was a mutual company with riders for constables. Chapman records the Terre Coupee Anti-Horse-Thief Association, organized in 1853 or 1854 "for the purpose of protecting the property…
The volunteer department — a century's course, told at its proven length
TO 2023 · ALL-VOLUNTEER
Until 2020 the town and the townships around it were served, in the town's own words, by an all-volunteer fire department. The New Carlisle Volunteer Fire Department covered the Town of New Carlisle, Olive Township, and Hudson…
The fallen — Assistant Chief Jamie Middlebrook, 5 August 2014
1973–2014 · LINE OF DUTY
The department's memorial stands for one name, and the record tells it whole. James Curtis "Jamie" Middlebrook, born 2 August 1973 to Robert and Carolyn Middlebrook, followed his father into the New Carlisle department and served…
The fire territory — created 2020, Hudson added 2022, the volunteers disbanded 2023
2018–2026 · THE MODERN COURSE
The territory was debated in 2018, created in 2020, and completed in 2022. The course in its documents: the Town Council voted 3–2 in January 2018 to begin the formal process (the Tribune's projection then was a 2019 launch); a…
The ambulance course — a town EMS department inside the fire course
BY 2011–2026 · EMS
New Carlisle ran its own ambulance as a town department before the territory folded it into one service. The council record opens the course in August 2011, when Ken Davis reported Olive Township's approval of a fourth EMT hire…
The marshal's department — from the ordinance book to Marshal Croymans
1991–2026 · TOWN MARSHAL
The town polices itself with a marshal and deputies, seated at Town Hall. The ordinance record opens the modern course: Town Code Chapter 98, with its fee schedule for "police, case, or other Marshal's Department reports" ($5 per…
The paid department: territory, station, water and alarm
BRANCH · FIRE & PUBLIC SAFETY · THE PAID DEPARTMENT
Lead: The fire territory's creation prints with its conflict whole, because the record tells it two ways and this history could not merge them. The town's own fire territory page states, at full strength: “The New Carlisle, Olive…