Fire departments receive awards

BY STACI WILSON

Three volunteer fire departments will be able to add some new equipment this year – thanks to a grant awarded last week by Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation.

Cabot awarded $25,000 – split evenly between Clifford, Rush and Meshoppen fire departments and presented the money Thursday evening at the company’s Dimock office. This is the third year Cabot has awarded the fire department grants – now totaling $75,000 to nine local fire departments.

“We value what you ladies and gentlemen are doing for us,” Cabot spokesman George Stark said. “It’s an important relationship.”

State Senator Lisa Baker (R-20) said, “I know what you do is difficult and takes a lot of hard work.”

That point, she told the fire company volunteers, was brought home to her this past summer while she was working at a Clifford Fire Company chicken barbecue. It was there one firefighter told her that it would take the sale of 775,000 chicken barbecues to purchase a new ladder truck.

Stark said he expects the company to continue with the fire grants and acknowledged that the $75,000 awarded to date “doesn’t fill the duct.”

Baker chairs the Veterans Affairs-Emergency Preparedness Committee in the state senate. She acknowledged that recruitment for local fire companies was a “daunting task” and was the author of the Well Site Safety Bill that provided for mapping of well sites as well as standardize signage across industry operations in the state.

Rush Volunteer Fire Company Chief Tom Jauss said his department would be purchasing a new thermal imaging camera and a gas meter to the money.

Juass said not just one department reaps the benefits of the equipment awards, as the local fire companies work together. The new equipment, he said, will help the entire area.

Philip Price, a Clifford Fire board member said, the company plans to purchase new LED lighting. The brighter lights will be especially helpful for incidents that occur on the interstate. The company also has plans to purchase a new ambulance, he said.

Meshoppen Assistant Chief Dustin Casselbury said his fire department is looking to install air bags in the rescue truck.

Baker thanked Cabot for their partnership with the local first responders.

Part of that partnership will be the ability for fire departments to fill tanker trucks during a fire from one of Cabot’s fresh water holding units, especially for fires in local communities where there is no hydrant access. The holding “ponds” are located in Great Bend, Nicholson and Lenox townships – with the company looking to build more in the area.

Currently, Springville Fire Company has the equipment to access the fill sites, although the company has not yet had to use it in an emergency situation. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission is allowing for the water to be used for emergency purposes.