One volunteer fire department lost a large amount of their equipment.

Members of the Pittman Center Community Volunteer Fire Department have been busy for the last seven days – not only protecting the vast Pittman community east of Gatlinburg, but these men and women also battled the wildfire in Gatlinburg. However, they lost equipment last Monday fighting a structure fire in their own community before being dispatched to Gatlinburg.

“We had to unhook the hoses from the truck and just drop them and leave them so we could get off the mountain,” said Rosemary Nichols with the Pittman Center Community Volunteer Fire Department, who added they lost nozzles among other things.

“During the initial structure fire attack, when we made the decision – the chief made the decision to evacuate the mountain, I set my jacket down and my radio fell out of my jacket. I didn’t realize it until we got to the bottom of the mountain. And we went up the next day and that was what was left of it,” said volunteer firefighter Stephen Smith.

“The radios alone ran just over $18,000. I’m not sure what the total on the equipment itself is going to be,” said Nichols.

Despite the setback to this group of volunteers, if called back to action, they’re ready to go.

“I definitely like the adrenaline rush of it,” the 22-year-old said. “I just like going out and doing everything there is to do with it.”

Part-timers working in multiple fire departments in the area is typical, as communities search for solutions to shrinking volunteer rosters, stagnant budgets, and increased demand.

Volunteers make up 69 percent of the firefighters in the country, according to the National Fire Protection Association, but the raw number fell 12 percent from 1984 to 2014 while the call volume nearly tripled nationwide from 1986 to 2013.

Volunteers in the area are not technically volunteers. All receive payment for responding to a call and for training, which has become a more prominent part of firefighting.

Since then, the committee has looked into three properties that are for sale: a 1.28 acre lot at 1 Brattleboro Road for $175,000, a 5.62 acre lot at 23 Kringle Drive for $695,000 and a 3.5 acre lot at 1 Northfield Road for $595,000.

Due to the drastic difference in pricing, some committee members considered during a Wednesday meeting whether the two larger properties would be too expensive for taxpayers. However, the first property invited its own considerations.

“You’d be pretty limited to what size building you’d put in there,” Fire Chief Peter Shedd said of the Brattleboro Road property.

The property, which is just west of the current station at 18 Church St., is a residential lot which was the site of the Bernardston Inn at the turn of the century, followed by the New England House until it was destroyed by fire. Demolishing the existing building would lend an additional cost, and the current septic system would likely not be useable. Because some of the property is on wetlands, the committee considered how much it might cost to bring in fill versus purchase a more expensive, but shovel-ready property.

“If you go over by Kringle Drive, there’s definitely no wetland issues there,” Shedd noted.

The other two lots are adjacent to each other in a commercial/industrial area. As they are more removed from the town center, committee members noted the activities of the fire department, including trainings and late-night responses, would be less likely to disrupt residents.