Tenn. firefighters get gift from NBV Fire Department

The North Belle Vernon Fire Department donated an air truck that it no longer uses.

Bonds formed within fire departments run deep — especially those in the heart of small communities.

The brotherhoods and sisterhoods get stronger every time members respond to a call, celebrate one of life’s milestones or lean on each other in hard times. They can stretch far beyond community, county or state lines.

This was shown Friday when two members of the Flynns Lick fire department in Tennessee stopped by the North Belle Vernon Fire Department ready to drive more than 530 miles home in a new-to-them air truck that will greatly help the small, rural communities they serve.

NBV Chief Mike Ceccarelli said their 1985 air truck will be put to good use. They were happy to help a department that does the best job it can without many resources.

Last year, the NBV fire department bought a used truck to replace the 1985 air truck, which it tried to put up for sale, but without much interest because it was a stick shift.

Ceccarelli reached out to Belle Vernon Fire Chief Rich Saxberg, who told them years ago his department donated a pump truck to a small fire department in Flynns Lick and had continued to donate other items, including smaller equipment like hoses to the department over the years.

Saxberg put him in contact with Flynns Lick Chief Jack Meadows, and with a little bit of planning, magic happened.

“This all came together in about two weeks,” Ceccarelli said. “I gave him a call, told him what we had, and asked if they might be interested.

“He asked how much, and I told him nothing. We wanted to donate it. He couldn’t believe it. It’s great to be able to give something to another department that they need and we know will be put to good use.”

Meadows Flynns Lick firefighter Chad Blair flew in amid a bit of choppy weather and will drive back home to Jackson County in the air truck.

“We flew through or around every tornado there was,” Meadows said.

For Meadows and Blair, the drive is well worth it.

“Talking to the chief here this morning, it’s like we have the same guys just with different names,” Meadows said.

Receiving the air truck is a big deal for Meadows, who runs one of nine fire departments in Jackson County.

His department receives about $1,500 annually from the county and relies heavily on donations and community support.

“That isn’t much when it costs about $2,000 for just turnout gear,” he said. “But we do the best with what we have, and I like to think we do a good job.

“We have about 18 on our roster. We’re small, and there’s really only about 12 guys we have that are dependable,” Meadows said.

Among his members are both of his sons and his sonin- law. His daughter was involved too, but was killed in a tragic accident a few years ago.

“I had to respond to that, along with her husband, and it’s hard, you know,” he said. “She had a little girl. I was the first person on the scene.”

That type of grief isn’t easy to work through, but his crew members, like so many tightknit crews in the Mon Valley, lean on each other.

In the fire house, everyone is family.

Meadows said his department is small, and the area it covers is a lot different than the residential streets that flow through North Belle Vernon.

“We have about five running miles,” Meadows said. “We cover all of Jackson County.

“Our community is nothing like this. We have around 1,500 people in our radius; it’s very rural. The only way we even have 1,500 people is because we do go into Gainesboro a little bit. I tell everybody that we’ve grown up and now have two red lights in our town.”

He hopes Blair will take over as the department’s pump operator, and said some training will be needed for his crew to learn the new equipment.

Members of Belle Vernon and North Belle Vernon fire departments spent time Friday morning showing Meadows and Blair the equipment before they drove it home.

“We’re all a brotherhood, it doesn’t matter how far or where you come from, we’re all in this together,” Ceccarelli said.

When the training was complete, Ceccarelli handed Meadows two sets of jingling keys.

“Honestly, this is unreal,” Meadows said. “I never even dreamed of us having anything like this. We’ve always worked with an engine and a tanker because we hardly have any fire hydrants. We have three and that’s about it in our whole area. A department on the opposite side of the county has an air truck, but we never dreamed of us having something like this until they called the other day. When I talked to him, I thought it would really be something to have something like this.

“I think it will build our manpower, I think I’m going to have to get people to operate this as well as our pump. We might have to figure out a way to build a bigger building.”