The paid or career division of the North Wildwood Fire Department was established with part-paid driver/operators, or “housemen” in the mid 1920’s. It’s first known Chief of record was Woodrow Hall around 1925. One Firefighter was on duty in each of the city’s firehouses of which there were two. Their jobs included not only extinguishing fires, but operating what was then considered modern day apparatus. They also took great care of the stations and some of them actually lived in them around the clock. The firehouses were located at 18th & New Jersey Ave’s which is now Woody’s Café and ironically was owned by the Hall family. The other station was located at 3rd & Central Aves in what was known as the Anglesea section of the city at that time. That building was a 3-story structure that also housed some city hall offices. A fire destroyed the top floor and eventually became a 2 story building containing only the fire department.The department continued to respond out of the 18th Ave. house until 1927 when a new station was erected at 15th & Central Aves. This station was shared by both the paid and volunteer firefighters as was the 3rd Ave station. In 1943, the members of the department applied for and were accepted into the New Jersey State Firemen’s Benevolent Association and became North Wildwood FMBA Local 56. In 1945, elected officials established a paid fire department by city ordinance
In 1971, a new station was constructed for the Anglesea members at 2nd & New Jersey Aves. This lot was donated to the firemen by the ladies auxiliary so that they could build this station. The 3rd Ave house was simply too small for the newer apparatus that was being built. Firefighters continued responding out of this new station up until 1994, when it was decided that it was much safer for two firefighters to work and respond together, plus the city had envisioned to add a new entity to the department in the near future.