Before a recent volunteer effort to repair a severely cracked and crumbling garage bay floor at the North Main Street Fire Station in Williamsburg, Fire Chief Jason Connell said that parking an engine in the bay was a precarious endeavor. "Backing the...
“Backing the truck in, you could get quite a tilt,” Connell said.
That tilt was caused by a failing cement floor that had cracked and sunk up to 7 inches in certain areas.
Now the bay that houses the town’s $465,000 Engine II fire truck purchased in 2015 sports a smooth new reinforced cement floor, thanks to the volunteer efforts of several members of the Williamsburg Firefighters Association.
“I’m very happy with the way it came out. Everybody did a great job,” Connell said.
Volunteers dug into the project in early November, cutting and ripping up sections of concrete, preparing the area and pouring and leveling the new floor.
Building supervisor Jim Locke, who was on site during the project, said that less than $1,000 from the town’s building repair account was spent on materials.
“I can’t imagine what that would have cost the town, if these people hadn’t volunteered their time and labor,” Select Board member Denise Banister said.
According to Connell, the garage bay was added to the original building in 1960 when fire engines were much smaller and lighter. As it is, Engine II can just squeeze into the bay with less than a 2-inch clearance at the top, and no room to spare from front to back.
With the weight of the trucks having doubled in the last 20 years alone, the floor, which has also been compromised by poor drainage, could not withstand the load of modern equipment.
“Over time I would say that the floor has sunk about 7 inches,” Connell said. “Just since I took over as chief over the last four years the floor has gone down significantly.”
With talk of a public safety building being considered for the town at some point, Connell said that he did not want to invest a lot of money in the old station.
Posted: Nov 28, 2016
AUGUSTA - The completion of the city's first new fire station in more than 50 years is a couple of weeks behind schedule, but Augusta Fire Chief Roger Audette said that the important thing is that the work is being done right.
“I keep telling people that it’s been almost 60 years since we’ve built a station, so another month wasn’t going to hurt us,” Audette said last week during a tour of the new facility on Leighton Road. “We’re still a couple of weeks behind, so it’s looking like mid-February before it’s done.”
It’s been 51 years since the city’s newest fire station was built on Hospital Street, and Audette said because of the growth in the area and the increase in fire department calls to north Augusta, this station is overdue.
A study by the Matrix Consulting Group in 2008 recommended the department build a new station in the area of Civic Center Drive near Interstate 95. The area is home to the Marketplace at Augusta, a hospital and an under-construction National Guard headquarters, along with several businesses, organizations and public agencies.
The building should last for between 70 and 90 years, Audette said, and it was designed to be expanded if there was a need because of the continued growth in north Augusta.
“It’s highly likely they’ll want to do that down the road,” the chief said. “Look how much has changed in the last 15 or 20 years.”
The majority of the exterior work on the structure, which will have space for the city’s new ladder truck, ambulances, a fire engine and a support vehicle, is complete, and Audette said the inside of the building is starting to take shape.
The new substation will have living quarters including several bedrooms, separate bathrooms for men and women, an exercise area, a kitchen and will provide much-needed space, which is something lacking at the city’s other stations.
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Posted: Nov 28, 2016
DALLAS -- Fire Station 11 on Cedar Springs is steeped in history. Firefighter and paramedic Josh Mihalyi is proof of that. His great uncle was a firefighter in this same station during the 1940s. "This whole wall is filled with pictures of the station over the years.
"This whole wall is filled with pictures of the station over the years. It's over 100 years old," Mihalyi said.
Since then the technology has evolved, thankfully, but the building remains the same. It's one of the few stations left in the city with a fireman's pole.
This Thanksgiving, between alarms, crews enjoyed one of the best tasting traditions.
"We take great pride that we make everything from scratch, so we bring in turkeys down; we take the carcass, we start making the stock the day before," said Patrick McElroy, the executive chef of the Warwick Hotel.
For more than a decade, staff at the four-star restaurant have prepared a special Thanksgiving feast for the fire crews at Station 11.
"We need to give thanks to the people that have voluntarily stepped away from their families to take care of us, and I think we really need to recognize that," McElroy said.
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Posted: Nov 28, 2016
CLINTON - The Clinton Fire Department is in the process of declaring some of their aging vehicles as "surplus vehicles" in order to sell them and purchase a new truck. Clinton Fire Chief Mike Brown addressed the Clinton City Council Committee of the Whole Tuesday night to begin to forward the proposal, which the council approved.
The proposal will be up for a final vote at the Dec. 13 council meeting.
In a memo to the council sent Nov. 8, Brown identified the potential surplus vehicles as a 1991 Ford tanker, and a 1996 Smeal pumper. Once declared surplus vehicles, Brown and the department are expected to bid the vehicles out for a minimum of $17,500 and a minimum of $10,000 respectively to cover some costs for a new truck.
Brown also intends to place the surplus tag on the department’s 2003 Ford Crown Victoria. The car is a retired Clinton Police Department squad car, and has been used as a CFD training vehicle, according to Brown. After numerous recent trips in the car, Brown doesn’t feel that it can adequately perform at highway speeds, should it need to.
“It’s time to get rid of these vehicles,” Brown told the council Tuesday night. “The market for these trucks is just really not there, but we do have some local interest in them, with two different local fire departments that would like to bid on them. The plan is to put them out to bid, and we’ll accept sealed bids on each vehicle.”
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Posted: Nov 28, 2016
City fire officials welcomed the installation of two new fire engines into service on Tuesday morning, and the addition of new vehicles coincides with the city's continued efforts to lower Starkville's insurance rating. Around 100 city and Mississippi State University staffers, elected officials and religious leaders gathered to welcome Engine 3 and Engine 5 into service.
The new trucks were purchased through state rebate money for around $1.1 million, and was planned after the city paid off the Starkville Fire Department's main ladder engine last year.
The introduction of the trucks saw a housing ceremony; a symbolic water transfer from the decommissioned engines; a blessing of the new engines and a call to service with emergency management officials. The new vehicles were anointed by Charlie F. Barnes, and the blessing was given by Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins.
"It's been a long process, but this is awesome," said SFD Chief Charles Yarbrough. "It's the first time since I've been here that we welcomed two new trucks at the same it. It's special."
"This is a banner day for SFD and a banner day for the city," added Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman. "It truly is special to take part in this ceremony for our whole community. Fire trucks are a symbol of civic pride, and I think that's for many different reasons. I think we are filled with pride because they also represent symbols of growing and prosperity. It is the fire service that allows us to grow and prosper as businesses and residences alike feel that Starkville is a safe place to build and have the structures protected by SFD."
As part of his departmental plan, Yarbrough implemented new changes to SFD policies, ranging from revamping the recruitment and hiring process to streamlining the building inspection guidelines and purchasing new equipment on a consistent basis to improve the department.
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