The city of Rincon and the Rincon Fire Department dedicated a fire truck to a longtime firefighter, WTOC.com reported.

Gary Kocher is a certified firefighter with the Rincon Fire Department. He was one of the first paid firefighters in the Lealman Fire Department in St. Petersburg (FL), the report said. He moved to Rincon in 1986 and started volunteering with the Rincon Fire Department in July 1987.

Kocher won multiple awards for his service such as Firefighter of the Year, according to the report.

Rincon Engine 1 was dedicated to Kocher for his 35 years of service to the community and leadership ability to the new firefighters in the Rincon Fire Department, the report said.

It took more time and money than anticipated, but the Village of San Jon (NM) celebrated the opening of a second fire station north of town on November 17, QCSunOnline.com reported.

Village officials had been thinking of expanding its first fire station, built in 2004. A village official compared getting all the fire equipment into the cramped building to a Tetris video game, the report said.

The village decided to build a second fire station nearly a mile northeast of I-40 on Quay Road 59.8, just off Highway 469, according to the report.

San Jon in October 2019 received a federal Community Development Block Grant of $750,000, the report said. The village applied for more federal money and got it – for a total of $1,006,500, plus $42,000 in matching funds from the fire department, the report said.

Finally, the village broke ground on the 4,000-square-foot, four-bay building in January.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Occoquan-Woodbridge-Lorton (VA) Volunteer Fire Department, known regionally as OWL Fire Department, needed to replace a rearmount aerial platform. It chose to go with a midmount aerial platform built by Seagrave Fire Apparatus, a 95-foot Aerialscope on a Marauder chassis with a 141-inch full tilt cab.

Wayne Haight, OWL’s chief, says the department is a combo agency with career staff 24/7 at two of three firehouses along with medic units. “In our three stations we have six engines, a heavy rescue, a 105-foot tower and 110-foot ladder, (one in reserve), two brush trucks, a collapse/rescue unit, an air/light truck, three utility vehicles, four ambulances, and three rescue/fire boats,” Haight said.

Craig Williams, owner of Emergency Vehicle Services, who sold the truck to OWL, says the fire department already has four Seagrave pumpers, and two on the production line, so it was natural for the department to go with a Seagrave aerial for its fleet. “The fire department chose a raised roof on their Aerialscope to emulate the roofs on their Seagrave pumpers,” Williams points out.

Haight says that the department wanted to focus on where the truck would be placed at a fire scene. “A midmount aerial apparatus is much easier and quicker to set up at a fire scene than a rear mount rig,” he says, adding that the OWL Marauder Aerialscope is powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 diesel engine with an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission and a Telma Retarder Auxiliary Braking System.

Hubert (NC) shipbuilder US Watercraft said it has been selected by New Hanover County (NC) to build a custom 30-foot aluminum fire/rescue vessel, MarineLink.com reported. Now under construction, the vessel will be delivered in early 2023.

Located in the southeastern part of the state, the county has 31 miles of shoreline on the mainland and barrier islands, with communities facing both the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to fire-fighting capacity, the aluminum catamaran will feature an hydraulic bow door for deploying a rescue ATV. The vessel can land on the beach to offload the vehicle in areas not easily accessible by road, the report said.

At 30’ LOA with a 12’ beam, the vessel will have a forward-leaning walk-around cabin. It will be equipped with twin 300 hp outboards, fire pump, and hydraulic drop-down bow door, the report said.

Glenwood City Council was told recently that to renovate the city’s half-century old fire station buildings would cost $6.5 million, Opinion-Tribune.com reported. To tear down existing structures and build a new two-story structure would cost $9.4 million.

The cost estimates, prepared by HGM Associates architectural and engineering firm, are for keeping the fire station at its current location on South Walnut Street, the report said.

Conducting the feasibility study is only an initial step in addressing the city’s fire station issue, the report said. Other sites have been mentioned informally as possible locations for a new fire station, including the Glenwood Resource Center campus.

A city official noted that funding for a new fire station would require approval from city taxpayers in a bond issue vote, according to the report.