The Rio Dell Volunteer Fire Department received its newest fire engine this past weekend to replace its oldest rig. At 10 feet 9 inches, the 2016 Rosenbauer Timberwolf is the tallest engine in the department's fleet, Fire Chief Shane Wilson said.
“This is the result of our ballot measure to raise our assessment for fire services in 2014,” he said.
The truck cost $450,000 and about $100,000 of new equipment — such as hoses, Jaws of Life and other tools — were purchased to outfit it, Wilson said.
“The fire department, they put a partial tax on the property in the fire district,” Rio Dell City Councilman Jack Thompson said.
“The last time we have even considered raising our assessment was in 1994 when we bought our last engine,” Wilson said.
The new engine will replace the department’s oldest engine from 1972.
“We couldn’t depend on it to the point that we could use it as a frontline engine,” Wilson said about the old truck.
The old engine had the most reliable water pump of all the engines, he said, but it was getting old.
“They definitely needed it,” Thompson said about the new engine.
Wilson is working with people in Shively, a small unincorporated town just east of U.S. Highway 101 between Stafford and Redcrest, to see if the old engine can find new life there. Once rid of the old engine, the department’s vehicle fleet will consist of one command SUV, one water tender, a rescue truck and three engines.
“We wanted an engine that was capable of fighting structure fires, commercial fires and wildland brush fires,” Wilson said and the new engine can do all that.
“It makes it a self-sufficient, standalone engine in case we need it to be,” he added.
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Posted: Nov 4, 2016
For the past two years the City of Walla Walla ambulance service is transporting an average of 250 patients for Fire District 4.But since the fire district has just purchased a new ambulance unit, this is expected to cut the city's services by half.
The new ambulance will be for emergency calls of patients needing basic life support.
"Like broken legs maybe not feeling well so we will transport them to hospital with one of our units from the fire district," says fire chief Rocky Eastman of Fire District 4.
County fire crews also will no longer have to rely on their current rescue truck for BLS patients.
The fire crews -- many of whom are volunteers -- look forward to utilizing their resources.
"This will enable us to provide more coverage we are sometimes short handed we are excited. This is an extra big step for us," says Jim Nagle of Fire District 4.
The county fire district currently gets an average of 500 emergency calls per year.
Half of those calls are usually BLS patients that get transported to the hospital.
The new emergency service plan for will go into effect sometime after January 1st, 2017.
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Posted: Nov 4, 2016
A historic bell mounted inside a two-story tower of the former Thompsonville Fire Department on Pearl Street was removed Thursday morning and will be preserved at the new station up the road on North Main Street.
Retired and current Thompsonville firefighters joined residents outside the former Pearl Street station Thursday morning to watch as two department firefighters, Tyler Burnham and Brian Bigda, worked with a crew to detach the bell from the two-story tower and lower it outside the former station.
The department raised $2,247 through 'Save the Bell' t-shirts, a dinner fundraiser at Red Robin and donations to hire a company to safely remove the bell.
The bell was made by Meneely & Co., in West Troy, N.Y. in 1891.
The bell was first installed in a tower at the district's second central fire station, located next to the Pearl Street station, now Caronna's Market.
The first fire station was located on Main Street across from what was known as the Bigelow Sanford Carpet Company.
The bell was moved to the 11 Pearl Street station between 1939 and 1941, when the Pearl Street station was being built. During that time, the district also installed Game Well Telegraph Emergency systems throughout the district, according to Thompsonville Fire Captain Scott Ellis.
"We're not even sure how the fire district became the owner of the bell, given the fact that it's foundry date doesn't quite match up with the installation of the Game Well System at the turn of the 20th century," Ellis said.
The Game Well Telegraph Emergency system included call boxes around the district, each with a specific number. If a call was made from one of those numbered boxes, the number would tone through the bell, alerting firefighters at the station and off-duty firefighters at home.
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