This is one of the Starr Township VFD’s current trucks.

This is one of the Starr Township VFD’s current trucks.

UNION FURNACE — The Starr Township Volunteer Fire Department, at 18524 State Route 328, in Union Furnace, will be adding a brand new “bumblebee fire truck” to its garage, thanks to a nearly $500,000 federal grant that will help purchase the much-needed equipment.

Announced Sept. 16, the Starr Township VFD received a $475,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program, according to the Ohio First Responder Grants, LLC Facebook page.

The grant will go toward the building of a new National Fire Protection Association-compliant 3,000-gallon tanker fire truck, according to the AFRG Facebook page.

The department itself will design the truck — to be done in the department’s and Union Furnace Elementary’s signature bright, beaming yellow, aka a “bumblebee truck,” as the students call them — and will be built by an apparatus company, Brian McDaniel, a firefighter and second lieutenant, explained.

“We’ll have to submit a request for bids based on a set of design guidelines that we come up with, whatever is allowed by the grant,” Corey Michel, a firefighter and department administrator, said. “And we follow the federal process: We get proposals, we determine what best suits our needs, and (what the manufacturer) can meet. And then... they can start building.”

The department contracted Mickey Smith for grant writing, and Michel, along with Gene Armes, a lieutenant and treasurer, “provided countless hours of paperwork and data compiled and handed off to (Smith),” Michel said.

Starr Township VFD Chief Terry Thrush said the truck will be the first brand new truck it has ever received since its formation in 1983; it currently has five trucks, and will likely return its current tanker as it is Federal Excess Personal Property (on loan).

The Starr Township VFD, with a roster of 22, serves around 48 square miles, Michel said; all of Starr Township and a third of Vinton County’s Brown Township. It performs 100-125 runs per year, Thrush estimated.

“A big chunk of it is Wayne National Forest,” Michel said. “We do also automatic mutual aid with the city of Logan and Washington Township. And we’ve just recently went as far as Laurelville (for) hazmat.”

Prior to the formation of the department, Union Furnace received fire services from Carbon Hill, Thrush said. The department will have to spend around $22,000 on the truck, and it may be two to three years before it actually comes to the department, but the firefighters are proud and excited for this new piece of equipment.

“NFPA standard doesn’t want to see a truck more than 20 years old,” Michel said. “Well, our primary truck’s a ‘97, and our backup truck’s a ‘94; our tanker is also a ‘94, so, we’re kind of up there in age.”

The new truck will be a “pumper-tanker combined,” Michel explained. “So it’ll have the full engine capacity, the pump and move the water and then also a large tank to haul the water.”

The department will see a huge difference with the new truck.

“The best part of it’s going to be, everything’s going to be new,” Thrush said. “As good of shape as we keep our trucks in, there’s always something that you’re fixing or updating.”

“We’re kind of proud of the fact that we’re bringing a $475,000 truck to the township for only $22,000,” Armes said.

“Not only that, volunteer fire service in the state of Ohio – well, in the nation in general – is a suffering program,” Michel added. “And, all of us here, especially the ones in this state, will take pride in the fact that, in my words, we’re an amazing service.”

McDaniel said the department’s average runtime is 13 minutes; the national standard is 14, Michel said. The department is 100% volunteer, Michel added; in fact, the firefighters pay $6 apiece to volunteer there ($5 membership and $1 for insurance).

The Starr Township VFD currently has a free smoke detector installation program in the works; a sign-up sheet can be found at www.starrfire.org. Detectors last up to a decade without battery replacement; Starr Township firefighters will install the detectors for those in need, and homeowner permission is required (renters/tenants must have homeowner permission).

Additionally, the Starr Township VFD offers free address signs to Starr Township residents. The signs can help first responders, mailmen and even visitors in identifying the location of homes (sign-up for this service can also be found at www.starrfire.org). The Starr VFD also does educational programming at Union Furnace Elementary and has installed mile markers along the Hocking River for rescue services.

The Starr VFD is a private nonprofit that is contracted to work with the township. Many of the department’s current members have been there from its 1983 beginnings; the department’s average age is 36, Michel said, and he and others noted they’ve been encouraged by recent, younger volunteers joining the force.

“Everything we do is to provide for the township and the residents of Starr Township and the top third of Brown Township, plus mutual aid for anybody else that needs us,” Michel said. “Not just getting the new truck, with all this training, and all we do, all the issues we solve and clients (we have).” And clients have ranged from people to rescued cats and cows, Thrush added.

The Starr Township VFD can be reached at (740) 762-0905 and found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/starrtwpfiredepartment. In case of an emergency, always call 911.

Email at kjohnson@logandaily.com.

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