ROWLAND — A 26-foot-long gift has enhanced the Rowland Rural Fire Department’s ability to serve the people who look to it for fire protection.
More than 60 people gathered this week to welcome a custom pumper truck donated to the department by the Ogden Volunteer Firefighters Association. The truck has a cab behind the two front seats for a crew of four to five firefighters.
“We will do inventory to make it complete and she’ll be ready for service,” said Lt. Ronnie Harris, of the Rowland Rural Fire Department. “A brand new one would run about $300,000. We will save money on hoses, axes, nozzles and safety equipment, too.”
Finding money for equipment such as a truck can be challenging for a small town.
“We are financially strapped for money,” said Fire Chief Joe McGirt. “We can’t be obligated with large debt. We have a building and truck payment already. Our income and operating expenses, it takes about everything to operate. If it wasn’t for grants and donations like this, we would hurt.”
Local residents may financially benefit, according to McGirt, if the town’s fire rating improves. The rating affects home insurance rates.
“We are working on getting better equipment. Better equipment, the better chance you have on lowering the rates,” McGirt said. “There is not one thing that will affect your rate, they look at water supply and your demographic, for example. However, a well-equipped station can lower that number.”
The pumper truck was delivered by Ogden Volunteer Firefighters Association President Tom MacNeish, who made the 90-mile drive from Wilmington.
The association, formerly the Ogden Volunteer Fire Department, formed when New Hanover County began providing fire protection in 2007, using paid firefighters and fire rescue personnel, thus eliminating the need for volunteer fire departments, according to David Bridgers, the association’s secretary and a retired Ogden and Rowland firefighter.
“At one time we had 10 trucks, including heavy equipment trucks that were equipped with the Jaws of Life,” he said. “Several went to fire departments that were in need of a truck. The pumper went to New Hanover. They no longer need it.”
On April 2, the association’s board of directors reviewed three letters, one each from Williams Township Volunteer Fire Department in Whiteville; Goose Creek Island Volunteer Fire Department in Lowland; and Rowland Rural.
When Bridgers, a Rowland native, saw his hometown requested the truck, he remembered the fire that took his mother’s home in 1977.
“I was on the east side of the tracks, the same side as her house. There was a stopped train on the tracks, the equipment was the other side,” Bridgers said. “I jumped in between train cars, headed to the firehouse, got the truck and drove along the tracks towards my mom’s house.”
The home couldn’t be saved, he said.
“Even if you could put a hose in the Lumber River, it still wouldn’t have put out the fire,” Bridgers said. “In fact, I told the board that same story and they agreed, there was a need. The truck went to Rowland. It was a good feeling.”
The Rowland Rural Fire Department has two firehouses, one on each side of a train track.
“We have two stations. We got people that live on both sides of the tracks. So, we want equipment on both sides of the track,” Lt. Harris said. “If a fire breaks out we want to be able to get to them, regardless of what side the fire is on.”
The original firehouse was located on Hickory Street, Chief McGirt said. Land was donated to the fire department, and the one-bay fire station was built in 1952. It sits in the same place it was built nearly 66 years ago, on East Main Street beside the police station.
“We needed more room for the fire department. We added on to the back of the rescue squad building that is located in front of this new station,” McGirt said. “Having a station on each side of the tracks worked out good for us.”
A seven-bay fire station was built in 2008 at 401 N. Bond St. That allowed firefighters to have access to equipment regardless of what side of the tracks the fire is on.
The Rowland department serves about 2,300 to 3,000 residents, he said.
“We were excited. We have several trucks. We have a couple that are newer, a few that are older,” Harris said. “This one is basically a freebie.”
The department has a working 1939 Model T pumper truck displayed at the front of the station. An article in The Robesonian about the truck’s purchase sits in a frame in front of the vintage fire engine.
“We appreciate everything Ogden volunteer fire has done,” Harris said. “We say thank you.”
