A new station elsewhere was one of the alternatives Chief Schapelhouman gave to the several dozen residents who came to a community meeting in the fire district's Chilco Street fire station on Saturday, April 29.

The neighbors let the chief and the three fire board members in attendance know that they don't like the original proposal to rebuild their 22-year-old neighborhood fire station so it can handle the neighboring industrial district's new and planned development.

North Yakima Fire Department Station No. 1 was home to the first fully mechanized fire department in the Western United States, according to fire historians. When it was built in 1912, the department was using gasoline-powered apparatus at a time when other fire companies, including Seattle’s, were using literal horsepower to move pumpers and hose wagons.

Prior to 1905, North Yakima’s fire department was an all-volunteer unit, starting first as a bucket brigade and turning professional in 1905, a year after 22 volunteers walked off the job in a dispute with the city. A new cadre of volunteers was recruited, but the city decided to make the department fully professional.

Matthew Helkey, a 15-year-old Bishop Diego Garcia High School student, has spent the last four years in Boy Scout Troop 1 of the Los Padres Council.

With the help of Troop 1, Helkey fixed up the Santa Barbara City Fire Department’s Fire Station 7, building a picnic table and placing it next to the station’s barbecue area. Helkey also did some landscape renovation around the station, which recently suffered storm damage.

A report by CFD states the incident happened near the 800 block of Savannah Highway shortly after 1 p.m. which caused the truck to strike the station.

"CFD members were in the station and responded to the incident along with Charleston County EMS and the Charleston Police Department. One patient from the vehicle was subsequently transported to the hospital," CFD officials said.