By Rusty Marks
The Charleston Gazette
SISSONVILLE, W.Va. — Offers of help and support for the Sissonville Volunteer Fire Department are coming from the local community and all over the country.
On Friday, one of the department’s three fire stations burned to the ground, destroying three fire trucks, an all-terrain vehicle and virtually all the station’s equipment.
Kanawha County Fire Coordinator C.W. Sigman said the station is operating again with a temporary building at Charleston Auto on Sissonville Drive.
County officials loaned the department the county’s spare fire engine, a second fire truck is on loan from Davis Creek, and the Danville Volunteer Fire Department in Boone County also loaned Sissonville a rescue truck.
Sigman said state and local officials are loaning the fire department tools and equipment, and the North Carolina-based company that builds the Jaws of Life rescue equipment is loaning the department tools.
Tom Miller, secretary of the 40-member fire department’s board of directors, said firefighters are overwhelmed.
“I cannot say enough about the emergency services community, not only in Kanawha County and the state, but all around the country,” Miller said. “It really makes you feel good to be part of a family that broad.”
Miller said the department has gotten calls from as far away as Alaska and British Columbia offering help. But just as touching has been support from the local community.
On Friday, students and Sissonville High School passed a bucket around and raised about $1,500. Students at Confidence Elementary School in nearby Putnam County raised $100.
“It’s the little things like that,” Miller said. “The people of Sissonville are spectacular.”
The Sissonville Volunteer Fire Department is one of the busiest departments in Kanawha County, covering an area of about 125 square miles. Miller said the department answers about 600 fire calls and about 1,000 medical calls a year.
Even though the department is using loaned equipment, the temporary fire station and equipment are allowing Sissonville to keep providing service while officials work out plans to build a new fire station and order new fire trucks.
“I’ve never seen a fire yet that cared about where the water came from that put it out,” Miller said.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said county officials plan to buy new bunker gear for the burned-out fire station at a regular meeting Thursday. Carper said the county planned to start replacing the station’s old equipment anyway, but decided to speed up the process after the fire.
Local officials aren’t sure how long it will take to replace the station and trucks. Carper said it usually takes about a year from the time an order for a fire truck is placed until the vehicle is delivered.
“I don’t see how you can start to build a building when it’s coming on winter,” Carper said. He said it will probably take a year for a new station to open.
Miller said fire officials want to include neighbors in Sissonville in plans for replacing the fire station. He said Sissonville’s firefighters are still meeting with their insurance carrier to figure out exactly what was lost and how much will be covered.
The building and its contents were insured for $500,000, but officials estimate the damage at more than $1 million.
Miller said the fire department has even been contacted by producers of ABC television’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Miller doesn’t know the chances of the department’s plight being taken up by the popular reality show, but fire officials are following up.
“We’d be stupid not to,” he said.
Copyright 2010 Charleston Newspapers