[quote name='EngineMan' post='191671' date='Feb 24 2008, 22:25 ']I can only imagine how much they've spent on the lettering and graphics for these trucks.
How many trucks have they gone through since forming????[/quote]
By my count, they have had 12 pieces since their origins about 4 years ago. The 1st seven rigs were bought by the original founding chief, who is no longer involved with the dept. It is obvious that some of these purchases were not practical, but 5 of those original 7 are gone.
Since the change in admin, the dept. has gotten 1 rig on loan, and received 4 more by donation. Quite a few more depts. have donated gear and equipment.
The only rig of these 12 to get full relettering was the snorkel, the door decals which are used on the present fleet can't cost that much, and were probably donated anyway.
Got any other concerns or are you just <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/stirpot.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
Stirring the pot, Doc. LoL. I just remember seeing many apparatus through the process. My apologies <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
I hope this works out for them, sounds like the area could use the service.
One thing people don't realize or know is that there are no townships, villages, boroughs, any type of political divisions like most states. Its either city or county here. Some counties do have fire levies that provide funding, most don't. City VFD's are the same way. Each fire dept. in the state gets an automatic set amount of money quarterly from the state of WV. I think it may be near $30,000 now. The dept. has to be "recognized and certified" by the state fire marshals office and complete quarterly paper work. If not the funding will be and has been cut off. This money is all that some depts. have to work with yearly!
I know that Cabell and Wayne counties have fire levies and Wayne county in particular generates at least $30,000 a year for each of its depts. The city of Huntington has a strange boundary as the west end of the city sits in Wayne county. The majority of the county is in Cabell county and the whole city is governed in Cabell County. Yet HFD gets a portion of the Wayne county fire levy. Engine #8 (st.8), what is called Westmoreland is in Wayne county.
My city Point Pleasant was a paid dept. for years and most likely still would be if they had unionized but this is another story. We get city, state and county money. At one time the county had a fire levy but, it was voted down after a few years. The county realized the need for support for the depts. and has since then financially support the depts. The money does fluctuate depending on the counties cash flow. The money a dept. receives is based solely on run volume. My dept being the busiest with around 350 calls a year (no EMS) gets the most. I've seen as much as $32,000 down to $20,000. The city put us on the public service bill which generates another $24,000 I think.
This is most likely the reason Bakerton did not have a building in place first and had a lot of used older apparatus. Like many vfds outside fund raising also supplies a great deal of the budget for any vfd. Some WV vfds do a great job of fund raising. Some don't! <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='<_<' /> I know of one dept. in Cabell county that has a paid secretary all through outside fund raising.
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.
If anyone knows anyone updating or might have equipment to donate please feel free to pass on this email i sent out. Thanks for taking time to read the post!
Brother & Sister Firefigher,
I am the fire chief of a rural volunteer fire department in Jefferson County WV that just had its 2 year anniversary. We became a department in April of 2006 began running calls out of an open field. We had a hard winter and it cause damage beyond repair on 2 of our vehicles. We are 90% complete on our pole barn station (nothing fancy) and need your help. If your department or any department you might know of has any equipment tey might be able to dontate we would be greatfull. Age doesn't matter as long as items are in working condition.
Here is a list of equipment needed if you come across anything:
Pickup or SUV (4x4 or not, but to turn into a brush truck or utility and/or serve multiple uses such as command/manpower ect...)
Tanker (anything that is safe and newer than our 1976
Age and looks are of no concern to me just mechanically sound, for safety. Please ask around and help us out.
If who ever donated these wanted we would be happy to have lettering placed on it somewhere "donated by ..........whoever" for good press if they wanted, pose for pictures for newpapers. Anything to show our gratitude.
Please feel free to contact me anytime, I can provide documents of being WV state recongized department, answer any quetions and provide any additional you might need.
Chief, good to see your progress is moving forward...I wish we had your building LOL, we could use a twin to it...I personally feel your pain on 2 of your vehicles being damaged beyond repair as both of our Ambulances sit outside.
I'll put the word out up here about your need for equipment donations and see if I get anything.
Can't promise anything but we have a decent mini that needs a little work might be able to send it to a good home. Like I said I'll do a little asking.
Are you getting the state insurance money alloted to all WV depts?
Yes we get the state allotment but hear the other day there are 50% cuts this year. I hope that is not true, but wouldn't surprise me.
Thanks
CHief Feris
[quote name='ppfd' post='208619' date='Apr 25 2008, 11:01 ']Can't promise anything but we have a decent mini that needs a little work might be able to send it to a good home. Like I said I'll do a little asking.
Are you getting the state insurance money alloted to all WV depts?[/quote]
Vehicles in desperate need due to firefighter safety concerns. We are so rural tankers are a must.
Pickup or SUV (4x4 or not, but to turn into a brush truck or utility and/or serve multiple uses such as command/manpower ect...)
Tanker (anything that is safe) Our 1976 is in rough shape and I would love to provide our members with something safer. Engine anything newer than 1984 with encolsed cab for safety.
Age and looks are of no concern to me just mechanically sound, for safety. Please ask around and help us out.
If who ever donated these wanted we would be happy to have lettering placed on it somewhere "donated by ..........whoever" for good press if they wanted, pose for pictures for newpapers. Anything to show our gratitude.
Please feel free to contact me anytime, I can provide documents of being WV state recongized department, answer any quetions and provide any additional you might need.
I found myself back in the Bakerton area on short notice this past Friday, May 30th. A special thank you to Chief Brian Ferris who provided me a contact name and number which allowed me to visit while the Chief was out of town and a thank you to Assistant Chief Bruce Hall for meeting me at the station and helping with updated photographs.
I have really enjoyed following the progress of Bakerton. The first time I visited, there was no station and apparatus was sitting out in a field. As you can see, the station is coming along nicely and most of the apparatus is now in doors.
This is the one I have been searching for. I was told that it won't be long until Tanker 7-1 will be housed at the new station. Until that time, it is kept at a business in the Bakerton area appoximately 5 miles from the station.
Tanker 7-1 is a 1981 GMC General with a 1965 Heil trailer. It holds 9,000 gallons of water and has a large 2000 gpm pump on the rear.
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