Fire protection in White Mills began with informal bucket brigades and likely with help from the Dorflinger Guards, an early security force connected to the Dorflinger Glass Works. In 1911, the community formed the White Mills Fire Department and built a firehouse at Main and Park Streets to house hand-drawn equipment, while also using the building as a social center. Fires tested the department repeatedly, including a January 1917 blaze of unknown and considered suspicious origin that destroyed two Dorflinger Glass Works buildings but was contained with help from Honesdale firefighters, saving other factory structures, and a December 21, 1960 fire caused by an overheated or defective oil furnace that destroyed St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church while firefighters saved nearby homes. In 1999, when bridge expansion threatened the 1911 firehouse with demolition, descendants of original founders and other preservation-minded residents moved the building across Main Street to preserve it.