Menu

WFC News

Posted: Oct 24, 2016

Commissioners to Address Fire Damage, New Cobb County (GA) Fire Station

Fireworks shot off by someone who trespassed onto a closed Cobb park the night of July 4 caused a fire that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to county property. Cobb commissioners on Tuesday will vote on a contract to rebuild the park facilities damaged by the resulting fire.
"(Noonday Creek) park was closed and locked and secured as we do any park, but someone, we can't tell if it was a resident or who, went into the closed park, so they were trespassing, and used our parking lot to shoot fireworks, and it was fireworks that caused this damage," said Cobb Public Services Director Jackie McMorris.

The fire caused a "substantial" amount of damage to a maintenance building and pole barn at the park, which were deemed a total loss, according to county documents. Commissioners will vote on a nearly $366,000 contract with Osprey Management for design and build construction services to rebuild the facilities.

The construction contract is almost half of the estimated $736,200 value of the destroyed structures and their contents, of which $250,000 will be paid by the county's claims fund, while insurance proceeds are expected to reimburse the remaining balance of the loss, according to county documents. The total cost in the wake of the fire is expected to increase, as the heat of the flames also damaged three park maintenance vehicles parked near the facilities, McMorris said.

"They were parked outside the building, and it burned one really bad, and then another one was really singed that was parked next to it," she said. "At this time, the office is still looking at the cost of replacing those vehicles and any ancillary expenditures."

No one so far has been charged in connection to the blaze, said Lt. Dan Dupree, spokesman for the Cobb Fire Department.

Read more
Posted: Oct 24, 2016

Work continues on Lawton (OK) Fire Station

Road and facility construction top the list of projects that Lawton's Capital Improvements Programs are funding throughout the city, a citizens watchdog group was told. Members of that CIP Watchdog Committee are tasked with overseeing the five CIPs and their millions of dollars in sales and property taxes that are funding a series of projects that range from arterial and residential street overlay to construction of a new public safety facility and a fire station.
Fire Station No. 8, a $5.96 million facility being built in southwest Lawton on Bishop Road, is the first entirely new fire station to be built in Lawton in years and has been under construction since summer.

City Manager Jerry Ihler said the contractor (Ross Construction Group) has completed the station's floor pad, has erected the walls for the firefighter living area and now is erecting walls for the bay area. Infrastructure work also is planned to support the station that will serve the city's southwest quadrant, Ihler said, noting that a new waterline has been installed and work on a sewer line is underway. In addition, T&G Construction has been issued a notice to proceed on work to upgrade Bishop Road between Southwest 52nd and Southwest 67th streets so the road will support the weight of fire trucks (the same work will be done on the southern portion of Southwest 52nd Street, north of Bishop Road). Construction is expected to take almost a year.

That station is not the only public safety facility being planned for Lawton.

The 2015 CIP will fund construction of a public safety complex on Railroad Street, south of East Gore Boulevard, which will house the Lawton Police Department and city jail, Municipal Court, and Central Fire Station. Ihler said Dewberrry Architects has begun designs of the 100,000-square-foot building for a construction project that is expected to total $29 million to $30 million. The project is expected to be let for bids in 2017.

Read more
Posted: Oct 24, 2016

Construction to Begin on New Bristol (TN) Fire Station

Construction workers will begin clearing and preparing the site for the new Bristol Tennessee Fire Station. The new fire station will be located between The Pinnacle shopping center and Bristol Regional Medical Center.
Bristol Tennessee Fire Chief Bob Barnes told News Channel 11, in recent years the western part of Bristol has experienced a lot of growth which created the need for a new station.

The city will hire nine full-time fire fighters to staff the new station.

Barnes said grading work on the site will begin next week and the new fire station should be completed by the end of Summer 2017.

Read more
Posted: Oct 24, 2016

Western Albemarle (VA) Rescue Squad Excited About Fire Apparatus

The Western-Albemarle Rescue Squad has a new truck that can save time and lives during emergency situations.
The "heavy rescue truck" features state of the art equipment including heavy duty entry kits, air pumps, and foam storage. The installation process took around three years to complete.

Chief Kostas Alibertis, at the Albemarle-Western Rescue Squad, says the new truck will allow the squad to perform multiple rescues at a time.

"In the past there would be, air supply trucks would come from Earlysville, Charlottesville, to Crozet to help. So we're able to keep those resources in their community and utilize this much closer to support anything that may be going on in western Albemarle County, Batesville, White Hall areas," said Alibertis.

The vehicle is not specified as a fire truck, but has the capability to respond to emergencies involving fire. The squad says its new truck is guaranteed to last the next 20-years.

Read more
Posted: Oct 24, 2016

Crockery Township (MI) Gets Creative with New Fire Apparatus

Renovating an old semi-tractor from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is helping the Crockery Township Fire Department save a lot of money on a new truck.
The DNR has a program in which it will donate a vehicle to the fire department once there is proof that the vehicle is being used.

The 2007 chassis the state agency donated to the Crockery Township department had less than 10,000 miles on it, according to Township Fire Chief Gary Dreyer.

"We had the frame stretched and a new apparatus body and pump installed," Dreyer said. "The total cost (of the renovated vehicle) will be around $169,000."

The money comes out of millage funds.

The department took delivery of the 4,000-gallon tanker last week and is in the process of installing all the needed equipment on it.

Dreyer said they hope to have the truck complete and all personnel trained so the tanker will be ready to roll by the end of the month. Firefighters have already tested the pump, rated at 1,000 gallons per minute, he said.

Also a former DNR vehicle, the 1988 truck, tanker 563, was renovated and put into service in about 2007, Dreyer said. Under the former DNR program, this truck will be turned back to that agency for auction at that time.

Two other vehicles — a late 1970s and a 1986 brush truck — are also DNR vehicles and will be turned over to that agency when the fire department is done with them.

Read more
RSS
First68806881688268836885688768886889Last

Theme picker

Search News Articles