Manheim Township Fire Rescue has officially unveiled its fourth fire station. The new station (202) is located at 600 Richmond Drive in Richmond Square, servicing the northwest/western parts of Manheim Township.

Station 202 will serve as the main headquarters for around the clock emergency response from one single engine and shifts of three firefighter units.

This location was picked from the northwest area of Manheim Township due to its central location to the area it wants to serve. The primary response area is north of Granite Run Drive to the Township border, north of Erb’s Quarry Road, and between the western Township boundary east to roughly Blossom Hill and Weaver Road.

Though it’s the smallest station in Manheim Township, the new location will instantly pay major dividends for the community in this region. Response times are expected to be reduced by 50% when responding from the Richmond Square station, as opposed to the East Oregon Road station and Fruitville Pike station.

“The opening of the Richmond Square Fire Rescue station will provide a significant increase in our ability to provide more timely service to this area of Manheim Township,” said Manheim Township Manager, Rick Kane. “With lower response times we expect a better outcome for residents when they are having a fire or medical emergency.”

The site selected was a commercial property that had been vacant for almost 3 years, which allowed for MT Fire Rescue to re-purpose a building rather than build a new one, or use open land to build new. The building itself was the appropriate size, and its location allowed for the single apparatus bay to be added to the existing footprint without major construction work.

An official open house to welcome the community is tentatively planned for spring, dependent on weather and any COVID restrictions at that time. 

According to a report from Grasslands News, a fire truck from the Davidson (Saskatchewan, Canada) Volunteer Fire Department (DVFD) rolled over on the way to a report of a major motor vehicle accident on Highway #11 between the towns of Girvin and Davidson at around 3:15 a.m. Thursday.

The drivers of three semitrucks suffered minor injuries when one of the trucks collided with a second truck that was stopped. Then, a third semi collided with both. The semis then caught fire. At about the same time, approximately five kilometers south of this, another semi collided with a second parked semi that was also stopped on the road. One driver was hospitalized with injuries described as “non-life-threatening,” and the second driver was not injured.

While responding to this incident, a DVFD truck rolled over with two firefighters inside. One member was transported to a local hospital with what are being called “non-life-threatening injuries”; the other was reported as being unharmed.

Craik RCMP Sgt. Robb Karaim said that icy road conditions that may have caused these accidents are improving. Despite this, he is asking motorists to drive with caution while emergency crews perform clean-up from these accidents and collisions.

The rollover of the DVFD truck is the second time in less than a week a fire department was involved in an accident while responding. On February 4, firefighter Castor (Alberta) Fire Department (CFD) Firefighter Stephen Rayfield died when his fire truck rolled over while responding to an accident. CFD Chief Patrick Kelly was also injured in the accident and taken to hospital.

A downtown Olympia homeless encampment that spurred a legal standoff between the city and Stonewall Youth, a nonprofit serving LGBTQ youth, appears the be largely abandoned following a Feb. 2 fire. Several men were packing up belongings at the camp on Tuesday, although one man who spoke to The Olympian said he was only there to help out.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2022 10:08:24 AM - SOURCE: Olympian

According to a report from The Ellsworth American, the people of Orland, Maine, voted 27-4 during a special town meeting February 3 to purchase a new fire apparatus to replace its primary engine, with a cost of about $322,000.

The Orland Fire Department’s (OFD’s) main truck had been losing parts and can no longer be inspected because of rust, among other issues, said OFD Chief Bob Conary.

The new truck will arrive to the department in three to four months.

Conary said that the new truck will be a stock unit. Adding customizations would have added an additional $100,000. The town is paying cash for the truck from a capital reserve fund.

Conary also said their double-frame International fire truck had corrosion which began to separate the two frames. Parts were also falling off of the frame, so it was time for a change.

As anyone who’s had to replace a vehicle in recent months has discovered, it’s not an ideal time to do so with the chip shortage, among other issues.

Conary said the price for the vehicle went up $5,000 a few days ago because quotes only last about 30 days.

The fate of the old engine is yet to be determined. Conary said that it has no trade-in value because it’s “non-inspectable.” He also stated that the new truck will help with insurance ratings for Orland’s property owners.

The ratings are determined by the amount of water fire departments can bring on their initial response. Thus, mutual aid is crucial in rural Maine, but it doesn’t affect those particular ratings.

Amid a national EMS staffing crisis, Washtenaw County (MI) fire departments are taking matters into their own hands, reports mlive.com.

On Tuesday, Scio Township became the second recent Ann Arbor-area community to buy its own emergency apparatus. It will allocate $260,000 of the township’s $1.88 million in federal COVID relief to buy and equip it, the report says.

The purchase comes during a historic EMT and paramedic shortage at Huron Valley Ambulance (HVA), the 40-year-old nonprofit ambulance service that handles all the county’s patient transport. The Chelsea Area Fire Authority last year also bought one, partly due to concerns over HVA response delays.

The ambulance service admits its staffing strain, saying about one in four positions is vacant.