Hello All,
After some time now I decided to join the firepic.net and thought I would give you the update from myself. I am the fire chief of the "Bakerton Fire Department, Inc” It has been a long time coming and still a long way to go, but we are making good, safe progress.
I will try and answer or explain things in order of the posts.
First, the department was initiated after a county wide study identified a need in the county for 2 more fire departments. The first one to get going was Bakerton CO7 and the second which is still in the planning phase is Middle way CO6. Bakerton was founded by a very well intentioned individual who purchased all of the original equipment on his own before there was an actual department. He was paid back in full once the department got going. The equipment was in various states of disrepair to say the least as well as some unneeded pieces for our area.
I believe the first vehicle count was as follows: 1 ladder, 1 mini, 1 engine/tanker (1250Gpm/2000G), 1 engine, 3 tankers, and 2 trailers
The only ones serviceable were the Brockway tanker now called Tanker 7, the supertanker now called Tanker 7-1. The ladder was sold to the tree service, 1 trailer sold to private party, E/T sold to a museum in NY, mini-pumper was traded for some equipment, 1 tanker and 1 trailers sold back to the founder. The engine needed $10k in repairs to get it operable and was eventually sold for scrape.
The first Department elections were held in Dec 2006 at that meeting the name was changed to drop the "tactical" another well intentioned idea from the founder.
Upon regrouping and trying to get a handle on things left us with T7 a 3500 gallon tanker and T71 a 9000 gallon tanker
I was able to work with Hurricane Fire and they were willing to donate the 1984 FMC (flame) engine to us just in time.
I was able to get the next 2 donated as well. The Heavy rescue from Murrysville, PA with is now called Squad 7, and the Berlin, MD engine which is called Engine 71.
We then had mechanical issues with the Hurricane engine after we had put a large amount of money in it. We contacted Hurricane and they allowed us to sell it to try and recoup some of the money we put in it. Also an opportunity to upgrade to the Monaghan engine and it carried more firefighters and more hose.
We worked out our 1st due with the county and currently have Box 305,306,102 as CO7 first due and box 103 as a duel box with CO1. I have asked both CO 1 and Co3 to be duel dispatched on all calls in the respective box area for now, for safety and help.
At this point we are still with out shelter and we stayed in service as long as we could and a little to long and had some freeze damage. We ran 90 calls our first year. We have run 34 so far this year (2008)
Construction on the pole barn began around 1-20-08; we are currently 90% complete and are shooting for mid may to have our first inspection/signoff.
As far as lettering costs, we didn't do to bad, the door patches and vehicle labels are not that bad, order them online and we have been using the same guy for our hats and shirt so got a deal. We are slowing going to a more traditional style with the maltase patch now being about 6 inches and the normal department lettering. We wanted to keep our identity but tone it down a bit.
Our current fleet is as follows: Tanker 7 (1976 Brockway), Tanker 71 (1981/1961Supertanker), Engine 7 (1984Monaghen), Brush 7 (1974 Dogde-forestryloaner), Squad 7 (1984 Ford 8000) and Air 7 (1987 mobile compressor w/6 bottle cascade)
Pictures are on our website except the Air unit, it will be there soon. It was just re-lettered and we are waiting on the air test to come back to place in service.
We have tripled our membership sine the beginning and are getting some hard working members with good experience. We were able to get our ducks in a row and apply for 2 DHS grants and have our fingers crossed. We are working all the grant angles and our fund raising members are hitting it hard.
I would invite anyone to stop in and take a look around. If you have any questions you can email me directly at bferris01@hotmail.com
We are more than willing to provide mutual aid to anyone who will call.
I have attached the most recent pic of the station I have. The station is a 100x70 pole barn. 5 Bays with 14x14 doors, a watch room, a lounge with kitchenette, 2 single sex bathrooms with private shower and mech room. The upstairs is now a 100x15 storage area thanks to J-county. We have a restaurant class septic system, retention pond and commercial oil separator and commercial kitchen grease separator again thanks to J-County.
Brian Ferris
Fire Chief
Bakerton Fire Department
Bakerton WV 25410
www.bfd7.com
After some time now I decided to join the firepic.net and thought I would give you the update from myself. I am the fire chief of the "Bakerton Fire Department, Inc” It has been a long time coming and still a long way to go, but we are making good, safe progress.
I will try and answer or explain things in order of the posts.
First, the department was initiated after a county wide study identified a need in the county for 2 more fire departments. The first one to get going was Bakerton CO7 and the second which is still in the planning phase is Middle way CO6. Bakerton was founded by a very well intentioned individual who purchased all of the original equipment on his own before there was an actual department. He was paid back in full once the department got going. The equipment was in various states of disrepair to say the least as well as some unneeded pieces for our area.
I believe the first vehicle count was as follows: 1 ladder, 1 mini, 1 engine/tanker (1250Gpm/2000G), 1 engine, 3 tankers, and 2 trailers
The only ones serviceable were the Brockway tanker now called Tanker 7, the supertanker now called Tanker 7-1. The ladder was sold to the tree service, 1 trailer sold to private party, E/T sold to a museum in NY, mini-pumper was traded for some equipment, 1 tanker and 1 trailers sold back to the founder. The engine needed $10k in repairs to get it operable and was eventually sold for scrape.
The first Department elections were held in Dec 2006 at that meeting the name was changed to drop the "tactical" another well intentioned idea from the founder.
Upon regrouping and trying to get a handle on things left us with T7 a 3500 gallon tanker and T71 a 9000 gallon tanker
I was able to work with Hurricane Fire and they were willing to donate the 1984 FMC (flame) engine to us just in time.
I was able to get the next 2 donated as well. The Heavy rescue from Murrysville, PA with is now called Squad 7, and the Berlin, MD engine which is called Engine 71.
We then had mechanical issues with the Hurricane engine after we had put a large amount of money in it. We contacted Hurricane and they allowed us to sell it to try and recoup some of the money we put in it. Also an opportunity to upgrade to the Monaghan engine and it carried more firefighters and more hose.
We worked out our 1st due with the county and currently have Box 305,306,102 as CO7 first due and box 103 as a duel box with CO1. I have asked both CO 1 and Co3 to be duel dispatched on all calls in the respective box area for now, for safety and help.
At this point we are still with out shelter and we stayed in service as long as we could and a little to long and had some freeze damage. We ran 90 calls our first year. We have run 34 so far this year (2008)
Construction on the pole barn began around 1-20-08; we are currently 90% complete and are shooting for mid may to have our first inspection/signoff.
As far as lettering costs, we didn't do to bad, the door patches and vehicle labels are not that bad, order them online and we have been using the same guy for our hats and shirt so got a deal. We are slowing going to a more traditional style with the maltase patch now being about 6 inches and the normal department lettering. We wanted to keep our identity but tone it down a bit.
Our current fleet is as follows: Tanker 7 (1976 Brockway), Tanker 71 (1981/1961Supertanker), Engine 7 (1984Monaghen), Brush 7 (1974 Dogde-forestryloaner), Squad 7 (1984 Ford 8000) and Air 7 (1987 mobile compressor w/6 bottle cascade)
Pictures are on our website except the Air unit, it will be there soon. It was just re-lettered and we are waiting on the air test to come back to place in service.
We have tripled our membership sine the beginning and are getting some hard working members with good experience. We were able to get our ducks in a row and apply for 2 DHS grants and have our fingers crossed. We are working all the grant angles and our fund raising members are hitting it hard.
I would invite anyone to stop in and take a look around. If you have any questions you can email me directly at bferris01@hotmail.com
We are more than willing to provide mutual aid to anyone who will call.
I have attached the most recent pic of the station I have. The station is a 100x70 pole barn. 5 Bays with 14x14 doors, a watch room, a lounge with kitchenette, 2 single sex bathrooms with private shower and mech room. The upstairs is now a 100x15 storage area thanks to J-county. We have a restaurant class septic system, retention pond and commercial oil separator and commercial kitchen grease separator again thanks to J-County.
Brian Ferris
Fire Chief
Bakerton Fire Department
Bakerton WV 25410
www.bfd7.com
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