However, the fact that the truck never made it to the fire did not contribute to the barn being destroyed, officials said. CCFR Chief Tommy Morgan said the barn on Scott Road was past the point of being saved when the truck overturned on Butterworth Road while responding to the blaze. The truck — CCFR’s Pumper 5 unit from its Kirksey station — crashed, in fact, while responding with no lights and sirens, Morgan said.   

“When you drive trucks long enough, this is going to happen eventually,” Morgan said. “Talking to our guy, he was meeting a vehicle (near the intersection Jones Sparkman Road) when he suddenly realized, after moving over a bit, that the pavement was higher than the ground and he fell off the road.”

The “guy” to which Morgan referred was not only a CCFR firefighter, but it was Calloway County Emergency Management Director Bill Call, who has been with CCFR for about three years. Morgan said Call was taken to Murray-Calloway County Hospital for treatment of injuries. He was released shortly before noon.

Also announced was a $284,625 grant for the Bristol Fire Department to purchase a similar boat. The funds were distributed from the Port Security Grant Program, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency.Newport’s boat is named after former Fire Chief William H. Connerton Jr.

Last year, hoping to get a new station built as quickly as possible, the Meridian Rural Fire District struck a deal with the city to pay for the first 13.5 months of operations, an estimated cost of $1.5 million.  

The original timeline for the project was estimated based on construction times from other fire stations in the valley, said Meridian Fire Division Chief Charlie Butterfield. Those fire stations were designed using a different process, where the design and build are done by the same contractor. The city’s process has taken longer, he said.

Meridian Fire Department staff are working to finalize a construction timeline and budget in the coming months, Butterfield said. A groundbreaking is expected to take place by the end of the year.

Item number two on the Public Safety Agenda cited overtime, under-staffing and over-working fire crews. It was a topic Commissioner Marion Williams asked to address. As he asked for clarity, Chief James was called to the podium to provide it, explaining to commission--there is no 'grave issue' with forced overtime.

 

The Chief said taking the OT route with the current staff costs less than hiring extra firefighters where overtime would no longer be needed. With 19 fire stations in the county, soon to be 20, there's still concern about manpower. Commissioner Williams continued to voice it.