TERLTON, Okla. — Due to gusty winds, Green Country was under another red flag warning as volunteer fire departments geared up for another round of fighting grassfires.
We’ve been closely following the efforts of the Peninsula Fire Department in Pawnee County as they prepared for the worst but hoped for the best.
2 News was there as they used the morning to prepare their fleet.
On March 19, fires scorched more than 500 acres and came dangerously close to homes.
Bob Sharp is the fire chief for the Peninsula and Westport Volunteer Fire Departments. He said the fires really take a toll on his crews and their equipment.
‘We have been up here every moment we can trying to repair trucks. We’ve been replacing pumps on trucks, preparing lights and just trying to get these trucks up to where they are 100% again,” said Sharp.
Due to a limited budget, he said they rely on volunteers like Bill Ardrey for repairs.
“They need to know how much water is in the tanks because otherwise the hose is out there, and they run out of water, and so we make a system that monitors that and displays it for them, and so we are going to be putting on one of those on the truck over there,” said Ardrey.
Ardrey said he’s known these guys for a long time, and it’s an honor to give back to them when they sacrifice so much time and effort for others.
This is an essential reminder to us all just how valuable volunteer fire departments genuinely are.
“They need to continue to remember that this is how communities survive, and the economy couldn’t survive without having fire departments out here, and they couldn’t afford their insurance premiums if we weren’t around to protect them,” said Sharp.
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