Globe, DuPont Protection Technologies, and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) are wrapping up the 2015 Globe Gear Giveaway Program by providing two more departments with turnout gear. The Cairo Volunteer Fire Department, Booneville, Mississippi, and the Mountain View (OK) Volunteer Fire Department will each receive four sets of new Globe turnout gear.

In 2015, 13 departments in need have been awarded a total of 52 sets of state-of-the-art Globe turnout gear to help protect their firefighters. All Globe gear is made with DuPont™ Nomex® and Kevlar® fibers, providing proven protection and top performance. The recipients were selected through a competitive nationwide application process and demonstrated a great need for the gear that they were unable to fulfill on their own.

“We thank Globe and DuPont for recognizing the critical need and taking action to help volunteer departments as they struggle to find funding to obtain gear and equipment for their firefighters,” says NVFC Chairman Kevin D. Quinn. “Four sets of new, compliant gear will go a long way in helping these departments enhance the safety, efficiency, and morale of their personnel.”

The Cairo Volunteer Fire Department serves 1,200 residents in a 25-square-mile area. It also runs mutual aid calls with four other departments. The department’s very small annual operating budget is barely enough to pay for basic utilities and fuel, let alone new gear. In fact, it currently does not have enough turnout gear for all its active members. The gear donation will help get it closer to having a full set of compliant turnout gear for all of active members, as well as free up funds for upgrades in other vital areas

“Our new Globe gear will keep our volunteers much safer on the fire scene and allow us to be more productive in saving lives and property within our community and surrounding communities,” says Chief Jerad Sims. “This award is greatly appreciated by our department and the whole community.”

The Mountain View Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. (MVVFD) provides fire protection and first responder services to the rural community of Muskogee, OK. Its service area includes 2,500 residents as well as a variety of buildings and businesses, a section of a river, and several highways. MVVFD also offers a community center for residents, which includes an underground tornado shelter, and maintains a helipad for Life Flight helicopters. Its 16 volunteer firefighters work to protect life and property by providing response services, assisting residents with obtaining and installing smoke alarms, and educating the community about fire prevention. Of the department’s 17 sets of gear, 12 sets are more than 15 years old. With the four sets of new Globe turnout gear, the department will be able to outfit more than half of their volunteers with new, up-to-standard gear. 

“Proper equipment will give our volunteers the ability to help our community in a safe and effective manner when they need us most,” says MVVFD Board Chairman Bobby Allen. “We are grateful for the new Globe turnout gear, which gives our volunteers the proper protection that every firefighter should have when they are called to duty.”

For more information, visit www.globeturnoutgear.com.

this retired 1978 Mack CF is decorated for the season.

Fire Station 6 in Lynchburg will close Dec. 21 for building renovations.

Station 6 on Fort Avenue will temporarily close until next year.

Crews and equipment will be moved to two other stations, Station 1 on Clay Street and Station 2 on Grace Street.

The station is expected to reopen when upgrades are finished. The improvements include new floors, living quarters and a training room.

For more information, view wsls.com

Twenty-seven Cary firefighters and two fire trucks have moved into the town's newest fire station -- a facility anticipated to reduce emergency response times in and around downtown.

Operations began at the new 13,395-square-foot, two-story facility, known as Fire Station 2, on Dec. 14. Located at 601 East Chatham St., the new station serves downtown and central Cary.

It replaces an outdated 41-year-old facility at 875 Southeast Maynard Road, which was not closed but reassigned as Fire Station 9, Assistant Fire Chief Loren Cone said.

When the original Fire Station 2 was built on Maynard Road in 1974, it was designed to accommodate one fire truck and four firefighters, but has since had to accommodate two trucks and 27 firefighters because of population increases in its service area. The station's service area now has a population of more than 14,000 people with nearly 4,000 commercial and multifamily properties, which is more than any other service area in Cary.

The town seeks to have the first fire truck arrive at the scene of an emergency within five minutes at 90 percent of the time, officials said. But prior to the completion of the new station, emergency units from the Maynard Road location struggled to meet this objective in the northern and southern parts of the service area.

"This building will help us get to that goal," said Mayor Harold Weinbrecht at a Fire Station 2 dedication ceremony Friday.

The new location will help firefighters respond more quickly to emergencies in the northern portion of the service area, Cary Fire Chief Allan Cain said, but there will still be some gaps in coverage with faster response times in the southern parts, particularly areas to the south of U.S. 1 on Walnut Street.

"We are still providing an effective service there, but we continue to fall behind in meeting our response rate target," he said.

The new facility will house a fire pumper, which is the engine that carries a hose, pumps and water, and a rescue company, which responds to rescue incidents and well as fires. The station also includes several features designed to reduce emergency response times, including two fire poles and bi-parting doors that open more quickly than traditional overhead doors, according to town staff.

Opening the Chatham Street fire station was also important since the former facility had reached a state of disrepair, according to town staff.

Cain said underground erosion caused by stormwater pipe breaching resulted in the building's foundation to settle.

"That causes walls to separate, the footing to separate and the floor and the front ramp is deteriorating," he said. "That was really the first catalyst for us to talk about replacing the fire station and then the further we looked at simply replacing the fire station, we knew that we had some service-level gaps both in town and further down Walnut Street."

Town officials are working to add another station in the Walnut Street and U.S. 1 area in order to meet current and future service demands, particularly with projected redevelopment in the Crossroads area.

The project cost the town an estimated $8.1 million, including design and construction. Voters approved $6.45 million in funding for construction in the 2012 community investment bonds referendum.

For more information, view www.newsobserver.com