"A meeting was held commencing at 7:30 p.m., on May 3, 1958 with the following people present: George Baker, Earl Bensel, John Boczak, Jack Briscoe, and Robert Heegaard. The purpose was to decide up on the feasibility of forming an Emergency Squad." So reads the first minutes of the Oriole Emergency Squad Inc. 

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The Squad was started with the above five men and the first elected officers were to be:

President - Robert Heegaard

Secretary-Treasurer - John Boczak

Captain - Jack Briscoe 

Co-Captain - George Baker

Engineer - Karl Bensel

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Within one month after the first meeting of the Squad, they had purchased a 1938 LaSalle Ambulance and had increased the membership to eight members. The Squad joined the Burlington County First Aid Council in July of 1958. 

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Initially organized as the "Oriole Emergency Squad", in 1972 the legal name of the Squad was changed to "Hampton Lakes Emergency Squad Inc." Oriole Emergency Squad came from the telephone of the squad in it's beginning days - "Our telephone number ORiole 9-2121 is listed in the yellow pages of your telephone directory under Ambulances Services." - Reads the Squad "Year Book" from 1961. 

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In the beginning days of the Squad, the ambulance was parked at someone's house, then in the 1970s the Squad was housed in the four bay building at the back of Holly Blvd. in the Hampton Lakes Development. This building was built by the members of the Emergency Squad and Hampton Lakes Fire Company, housing both departments under one roof and under the entity "Old Forge Fire-Rescue."

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Now, HLES reside in the same building that we have since 1990 in the front of the Hampton Lakes development.