Before 1926, the first piece of fire equipment used in River Plaza was a hand drawn hose reel loaned by the Fair Haven Fire Department. It was housed in Charles R. Thompson's garage at 46 Hubbard Ave. and manned by River Plaza volunteers prior to the formal organizing of the fire company.
In 1926, the beginning of the present fire company was formed, in order to provide for more local fire protection since Red Bank, NJ provided most of this service at this time. The following residents were the primary organizers: John Brower, T. Russell Clark, Bert M. Decker, and Addison Sanborn. Papers of incorporation were drawn up by Addison Sanborn and the company was formally incorporated on December 8, 1927. Charter members included:
On April 9, 1928, River Plaza Hose Co. No.1 was recognized by the Township of Middletown and became company number 9 of the Middletown Township Fire Department.
Shortly thereafter, construction of the first fire house was started at 70 Foster Street under the supervision of John Brower, Charles Brenker, Albert Conover, George and William Kaney and George Palmer. The fire house was turned over to the company with appropriate ceremonies on July 10, 1928 by James McPhee, Harry C. Gardner and S. Vincent Willis.
The hand-drawn hose reel was soon replaced by two used Model "T" Fords purchased from the Jamesburg Fire Department. One was a 250 GPM pumper, the other, a hook and ladder truck. In October 1930 a new 500 GPM Ahrens Fox pumper was purchased and remained in service long after the 500 GPM International was purchased in 1952.
In 1959 plans were finalized for construction of a new and much larger fire house to build on the same site. W. Irwin Hendricks was chairman of the building committee and Frank Amodio, Navesink was the architect. The original frame structure was torn down in December 1959 and construction on the new masonry building began that same winter with the corner stone being laid in December 1960. Much of the finishing work was completed by the membership, especially Dan Gordaychik, while the rest was done by outside contractors.