Reaching a centennial anniversary is a fête, perhaps more so when it involves a volunteer fire company on a barrier island where the population swells for three months a year. With that in mind, marking the 100th year of the Ship Bottom Volunteer Fire Co. makes the occasion even more extraordinary.

With the population of the borough growing in the early 1920s, the need for organized fire protection within the less than 1-square-mile seaside community was inevitable.