With support from the community and several boards, two new fire engines have been added to the department’s fleet.  

Jerry Bialick with the Bexar-Bulverde Volunteer Fire Department said the new engines are state-of-the-art and dependable.

 

The Fire Department has also ordered another ladder truck valued at more than $1 million and hopes to have it by next year. Another brush truck is also expected to be added to the fleet in a couple of months.

The tools include a new Hurst Jaws of Life brand spreader and cutter, a new, high-tech Flir thermal imaging camera and a TL-9 stabilizer.  

The thermal imaging camera replaces an older model.

 

State Highway Patrol Trooper Timothy Pope said the driver of a Conetoe Volunteer Fire Department truck collided with a Ford F-350 that was hauling a trailer behind it about 10 a.m. near the Edgecombe-Martin county line.  

According to Pope, firefighters from Conetoe along with the N.C. Forest Service were working to extinguish a brush fire prior to the wreck. An animal control officer with the Martin County Sheriff's Office discovered the fire after he stopped to remove a tire from the roadway.

A firefighter was driving another truck eastbound on the highway from Conetoe to assist in the response when the wreck occurred. 

The report is based on video footage shot by the NGO Citizen’s Eye for Democracy and against Corruption (Ojo Ciudadano por la Democracia y en Contra de la Corrupción) outside the vacation home of Manuel Alberto Maza Sánchez, the head of the state fire department. If the fire engine needed mechanical repairs, it should be in a repair shop or an official facility, reckoned the citizens’ group in an online post. While no formal complaint has been filed in the case, the Oaxaca Secretariat of Government Accountability and Transparency has announced it will investigate.