An Ellenboro (NC) Fire Department fire apparatus was heading to a fire when the driver tried to avoid a deer in the road and rolled the apparatus over, wbtv.com reported.

The Nov. 14, 2025 crash happened around 3:30 a.m. along Piney Mountain Road in Rutherford County, the report said.

A fire official said the apparatus driver was flown to a hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and was listed in serious but stable condition.

“To all who have called text or expressed concern, the Ellenboro fire department did have an accident this morning responding to a structure fire,” the department said in a Facebook post. “The member is in serious but stable condition. No other vehicles were involved. All prayers are appreciated.”

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Chris Peterson
Hungry Horse News, Columbia Falls, Mont.
(TNS)

Nov. 12—In a ceremony harkening back to the old days, the Columbia Falls Fire Department pushed its new fire truck back into the hall last week.

The ceremony dates back to the 1800s, when fire engines at the time were drawn by horses and had to be pushed back into the hall after a fire.

The Thursday night ceremony drew about 60 current and former firefighters, their families and friends as they put the rig in neutral and slowly pushed it back into the hall with longtime firefighter Ron Ross at the wheel.

The $785,000 brand new HME engine was purchased cooperatively by the city and rural fire departments.

“The new truck combines two engines into one,” fire chief Karl Weeks told the crowd.

The all-purpose rig is loaded to the gills with equipment to fight just about any fire, or to respond to just about any emergency. A firefighter can enter the hall and be ready to fight a fire fully equipped with a self-contained breathing unit in just over a minute.

The truck holds 1,000 gallons of water, has several hose lays, includes extrication equipment like the Jaws of Life, an assortment of axes and pry bars, foam to fight Class A fires (like wood and grass) and foam for class B (like gasoline) and equipment to fight chimney fires

Its big pump can deliver 1,500 gallons of water a minute from a hydrant and all of the electrical equipment, like saws and fans are now battery operated with rechargeable batteries.

“It will be the first truck out of the station,” on calls, Weeks said.

Weeks thanked the city and the rural district communities for their support in making the purchase possible.

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The truck replaces engine 431, which will stay in service as it was sold to Blankenship and Engine 433 which will be used out of the rural district hall on Highway 2.

The truck is adorned with new decals and also has a Columbia Falls Wildcat on one door.

© 2025 the Hungry Horse News (Columbia Falls, Mont.). Visit www.flatheadnewsgroup.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The post MT Department Welcomes New Rig with Ceremonial Push into Hall appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

I thought this last part would be a piece of cake. Wrong again. At a recent social function of past-our-prime players and older but still active volunteers, the “too old” debate intensified. Raisin Squad members added their biased opinions at subsequent morning coffees.

Many of the discussions linked the lack of volunteer staffing with whether or not to keep old people as active interior firefighters. Some inferred that members getting older is the sole reason some departments can’t staff their apparatus. Sure, blame the white hairs because the fire department hierarchy has not objectively looked into the future. The real argumentative people found fault with every proposed and attempted solution, including some that’ve been around since World War II.

• Cantankerous Wisdom: How Old Is Too Old, Part 1
• Cantankerous Wisdom: How Old Is Too Old, Part 2

One young squad member said these articles should differentiate between a mandatory retirement age for firefighters and meeting a department’s minimum physical and mental acuity requirements. He’s right, but its fun to occasionally stir-the-pot.

Part-Timers

For many years, volunteer departments have supplemented daytime staffing shortages by employing part-time help—specifically an apparatus driver. Gotta make sure at least one truck gets out the door. Kudos to recognizing the problem, however, having one rig with one person responding and possibly nobody else showing up to fight the fire can be problematic to downright disastrous. Granted, some departments have had career drivers working 24/7/365 that has worked well for them. Those stories should be shared.

As daytime volunteer availability has worsened, additional part-timers have been hired–probably to satisfy employment laws and insurance regulations, many are legally employed as laborers, station managers, mechanics, groundskeepers, maintenance workers, IT specialists, janitors or various other monikers. Its feasible only part-timers are crewing responding apparatus during weekdays. I applaud the hiring entities for addressing the situation, but there can be drawbacks.

When volunteer departments first started hiring part-timers they were often older department members, often recently retired from a full-time occupation. Keeping it in the family was a norm. Whether part-timers had to maintain a department’s membership requirements for training, attendance, and physical fitness was—or still is—up to individual departments. I know a lot of old people so no judgment or accusation is made.

This statement will no doubt draw the ire of many older part-timers: “When the tones drop, if part-timers are going to perform the duties of active interior firefighters (or EMS providers if applicable), they should meet whatever has been established as the minimum qualifications established for that particular department.” 

Career firefighters