Daniel Umlauf says some of his earliest memories are of being at the Whiting Fire Company’s firehouse. “That was the hub of Whiting,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “It was a close-knit family. Everything went through the fire company.” Daniel, better known as Danny, is the third generation to have served in Whiting Fire Company; his father, Clement Umlauf Jr., and grandfather, Clement Sr., also served. It’s a legacy carried on by his son, Daniel Jr., for a time. “It’s just something that’s born and bred into you,” he said. His grandfather first joined the Whiting Fire Company in 1939 or 1940, not long after moving to Whiting. The fire company had just incorporated in 1937, according to the company’s website. In those early days, the fire engine was “kept in the garage at Allegrinia’s Bar, located at the end of Lakewood Avenue,” the fire company’s history page says.
