The Forestry Service gave the truck to the Doddridge Fire Department, and firefighters have been working for a while to convert it to a tanker truck.

We stripped it down to the frame and started over with it. We rigged a spray system for it, put lights on it, and painted it red. It was military green," said Doddridge Fire Chief Lonnie Hazel.

"Our other tanker is getting out of date. We are needing to take it out of service soon," Hazel said. "This is a good addition to our station."

The deadline to apply for the 2018 Assistance to Firefighters Grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is Friday.  

The structure would be built behind New Philadelphia’s new fire station on E. Front Avenue. It would have several different training areas, including confined space, rappelling, forced entry and a search maze, according to New Philadelphia Fire Chief Jim Parrish.

The infrastructure for the burn structure is already in place, he said. It was included in the plans for the fire station. New Philadelphia is seeking the grant in cooperation with the city of Uhrichsville, the Arrowhead Fire District in Gnadenhutten, the Tuscarawas-Warwick Fire Department and the York Township Fire Department.

Among the departments benefitting from the grants are Niles, Des Plaines, Glenview, Prospect Heights, Morton Grove, Northbrook, Glencoe, Highland Park, Evanston and  Deerfield-Bannockburn. Those departments are all part of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) Division 3.  

Some departments are receiving upgraded radios. Most are receiving a significant software upgrade which fire chiefs from Niles and Glenview said will be a great help in locating firefighters in distress in a fire.

Niles Fire Chief Marty Feld said the new communications feature in advanced digital radios and software provided in the grant will allow fire scene commanders to “ping” the location of a missing or unresponsive firefighter, if those firefighters become unaccounted for at a fire scene. The grant is funding the purchase of four new Niles Fire Dept. radios and the software upgrade.

Johnson County Consolidated Fire District No. 2 is one of three fire agencies building new stations right now.   

Shawnee hopes to open a new station near 53rd Street and Woodsonia Drive in January. Kansas City broke ground on a station on Cookingham Drive in the northeast corner of the city this year.   

The district will relocate firefighters and trucks from a current station on Roe Avenue. Lopez said a study showed while the district serves eight municipalities, the majority of calls came from central Prairie Village, so building a station there would improve response times.