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Brassfield Fire Department, which covers
the southern end of Granville County, is
a department in need, and last Thursday
their fellow firefighters in Wake Forest
met part of it.
During a short ceremony in
the apparatus bay at Station #1, former
Wake Forest Fire Chief Bruce Keith
handed over the keys and paperwork to
Brassfield Fire Chief Jerry Tuttle for a
1981 pumper.
“Their pumper rusted out and
the one other truck they had just had
problems,” Wake Forest Fire Chief Jerry
Swift said. To go to a fire, the
Brassfield firemen have to fill their
current tanker before they can hit the
road.
The Brassfield department’s
annual budget is only $50,000, he said.
Brassfield is one of the adjacent
departments Wake Forest, Youngsville and
Stony Hill have relied on for mutual aid
through the years.
The 1981 pumper, Keith said,
was donated by Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary through the efforts
of then-President Randall Lolley. When
it was delivered, Lolley rode on the
back with firemen as the truck paraded
through town to the station, which was
then on South White Street. The building
has been renovated and houses the Wake
Forest Chamber of Commerce.
The seminary offered to pay
the principal on the loan and the town
fire department paid the interest. It
was a deal too good to turn down, Keith
said.
The pumper is still in good
working order and was polished down to
the treads of the tires for the donation
ceremony. There was a large crowd
because it was a training night for
volunteers. |
