|
Members
of the Wake Forest Fire Department have traditionally been firemen, former
firemen or men with close ties to the department.
Thursday
night that tradition was broken when two men with no ties were elected to the
board with the help of sitting board members and people in two subdivisions on
the west side of town who had been shocked by two disastrous house fires.
The
fire board also broke a tradition last year by going outside the department and
hiring a professional firefighter, new Chief Jerry Swift.
“We’re
breaking some traditions. That’s progress to me,” board chairman Stanley Denton
said. “We’ve got to look to the future and prepare for it. The Wake Forest we
knew no longer still exists.”
Denton
said the board asked for nominations from the Fire Information Committee that was formed by people in Waterfall
Plantation and Thompson Mill subdivisions after fire destroyed homes in March
of 2006 and January of this year.
That
committee has been working with Swift and board members to inform subdivision
residents about fire prevention, detection and fighting. Since there are no
fire hydrants in the subdivisions, they have urged Wake County and the Town of
Wake Forest to help fund a pumper/tanker that can carry 3,000 gallons of water
for a more effective first response at a fire.
All
property owners in the town and the rural district may attend the annual
meeting held at Station #1 on East Elm Avenue, but only those at the meeting
may vote. About 20 people from the two Thompson Mill Road subdivisions were at
the meeting and helped elect the two men, Dean Tryon and Scott Spangler.
Tryon,
an engineer, retired from General Motors in 1997 and moved to Wake Forest in
1998. He has been one of the committee members accompanying Swift to meetings
of the county’s fire apparatus and fire commission meetings.
Spangler’s
home at 2612 Mica Mine Lane was the one lost to fire in January. “I was shocked
at how everything can change in a small moment,” he wrote in a resume prepared
for Thursday’s meeting. A native of the Raleigh-Wake Forest area, he works in
property and casualty insurance and has just started two businesses that grew
out of his experience with the fire: a building company, Anki Homes LLC, and a
disaster restoration company, Atlantic Restoration LLC.
Both
men have been active in the fire committee and in working with the fire
department, Denton said.
The
vacancies on the board came about because Randy Bright and Ricky Wright chose
not to run again for the four-year terms. Besides Denton, the board members Bob
Bridges, vice president; James Holding, secretary; Don Griesedieck, treasurer;
Ken Capps, Richard Stinnett and Thomas Walters. Commissioner Frank Drake is the
town board liaison. Denton said board members are paid $50 per month with the
four officers, the members of the executive committee, receiving a little more
because they have more duties.
The
Wake Forest Fire Department is an independent corporation formed in 1983 when
the town’s fire department and the rural Wakette department merged. The new
department contracts with the town and with the county to provide fire
protection. The department was all-volunteer until 1993 when it began hiring
full-time and part-time firefighters. It has two stations – East Elm Avenue and
Ligon Mill Road – has the land for the third and fourth stations on Forestville
Road and just off Wake Union Church Road and is looking for land for a station
on the east side of town along or near Wait Avenue (N.C. 98).
|
