A Fire Company That Won’t Give Up

This article from our Great Lakes Cyber-spondent is a true story.  But the names have been changed for reasons that will be evident when you read it.  Use the Comments to tell us what you think that you would do in this situation.

The Hard Luck Fire Company Hits Another Bump
by S. Marshall

In northwest Pennsylvania, there is an active volunteer fire company that keeps running into tough spots, so much so that I’ve hung the title of “The Hard Luck Fire Company” on them. I will not name them, as they have had enough trouble of late. Suffice to say that they persevere and continue to protect their community.

They are a very strong company, frequently turning out to cover calls that neighboring companies scratch on and they field an excellent stable of top notch, well designed apparatus. Their firefighters are well trained and led by a long time chief who knows his stuff. The fact that they continue to turn out is remarkable to me, considering the obstacles they’ve faced.

Their troubles started back in the early 90s, when an electrical short in an reserve pumper set fire to their station. The severe damage was limited to the pumper itself but there was smoke and heat damage to the rest of their equipment and the station. They bounced back and marched on by placing an order for a the area’s first quint. Barely before the quint was broken in, it was t-boned by a car during a snow storm, causing $450,000 damage. Moments later, at another intersection, their tanker, responding on the same call, was involved in another accident. That crash was not as serious and both accidents were ruled as not the fault of the apparatus drivers. Terrible weather conditions were to blame. A snow squall was on-going at the time and visibilities were near zero.

The quint was out of service for over a year while a major rebuild was undertaken by the factory.

An odd fire call only added to the misery. They were called to a local industrial plant for a transformer fire in a structure. The plant had been closed for a number of years. After the fire, it was discovered the the transformer was ancient, dating back to the 1950s and now, all of the turnout gear, hose and air packs used in the firefight were contaminated with PCBs and had to be replaced. Not an fast, easy or cheap task.

About this time, the department was working on plans to move out of their old station and into a new modern facility. The old station was too small, in a bad spot with no build-out potential and was poorly insulated. A piece of property was purchased and a new modern station was erected, with a large, free-standing social hall built on the same lot. It would have been the center of social activity in an area that desperately needed attention. The construction was nearly completed on the apparatus building when a legal entanglement popped up.

It seems that decades before, when the area had been an industrial powerhouse, that a restriction had been placed on the deed banning the sale of alcohol on the property. In Pennsylvania, it’s tough to get deed restrictions overturned. Somehow, the restriction had been missed by the department’s lawyer when he was taking care of the legal necessities. Construction ceased immediately on both the station and the new social hall. The old social hall, located on a hill above the old fire station, was the department’s main fund raising source and it had to stay in business. Legal efforts to strike the restrictions continued for several years with no success. The judge required the approval of every property owner near the new station to sign off on it before he could remove the offending covenant and there were two hold-outs. Those two property owners objections were both religion based and steadfast.

All this time, the new station was just sitting there nearly completed and empty. The department’s finances were in limbo with a lot of cash and credit tied up in the construction…and now they were heating and maintaining a station they could not occupy. About this time, a new piece of apparatus arrived. It was a huge pumper-tanker that was desperately needed in the area but it was way too big for the old station. The pumper-tanker had been ordered before the legal restriction was found and it was anticipated to arrive after the move to the new station.  It’s arrival forced the department out of the old station and into the new one, further complicating the legal mess. The old social hall continued on as it always had, serving as a cash cow but it, too was approaching a speed bump.

The department’s officers thought they had found an solution in 2006. A local well drilling outfit was looking for a facility with large bays. The plan was to sell the new station to the well drillers and build another new station about a mile away, on unrestricted land. Then the economy came to a stand still. The drilling company not only backed out of the plan, they left the area entirely, putting dozens of locals out of work and placing the Hard Luck Fire Company back in limbo. About this time, I got a call from a department member, asking me to come down to the old social hall to see something. Their old social hall was in an older wood frame building that was originally a residential home. It had been added onto numerous times and improved…and it was now starting to slide down the steep hill it was built on. A crack had developed across the floor of the main room and this was no small crack in the tile, it was an inch wide canyon! The department called in a specialist to shore up the building and effect repairs but there is only so much they can do. The building’s life span is limited.

There have been a number of suggestions and plans to squash the legal restrictions. One of them, was for the fire company to buy the properties of the hold-outs, effectively ending the restrictions. This can’t happen because the department’s finances are in legal never-never land. The banks won’t touch the department until the property situation is clarified and the department can’t clarify the situation without a loan. A true “Catch 22″.

So while all of this is going on, the company continues to be the “go-to guys” when the bell rings. In an area with frequent man-power issues at VFDs, they run to assist neighboring companies almost as often as they respond to their own calls.  So this morning in the news, I see that they have yet again had a visit from the bad luck wagon. Some low-life broke into the old social hall and stole a safe containing the weekend’s proceeds. Figures. At least this time, the loss should be covered by insurance. This begs the question….why do bad things happen to good people?…and continue to happen?