October is National Fire Prevention Month: West side of Cherokee County gets stellar service from Maydelle, Earle’s Chapel and J’ville FDs

Editor’s note: Cherokee County is home to 11 fire and volunteer fire departments. This is the third in an ongoing series spotlighting local fire departments through the month of October, National Fire Prevention Month.

Jacksonville Fire Department is the biggest department – and the only fully staffed paid department -- in the county, but that doesn’t mean the volunteer departments adjacent to it are left out in the cold.

Maydelle and Earle’s Chapel volunteer departments work hard to keep their personnel, equipment and training up to par with the paid department, and all three departments are always happy to assist one another as needed.

“We work very well with our surrounding departments,” Maydelle Fire Department Chief Jody Gray said. “Rusk and Gallatin being the ones that we work most with, but we all enjoy an A plus working relationship with everyone.”

Earle’s Chapel Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ted Hunt agreed.

“We don’t get too many calls on Maydelle’s end, either, but we’re also happy to help any way we can,” he said. “We do assist Jacksonville a bit more, because our coverage area butts right up against theirs. We all work together to make sure whatever is needed, is available.”

That was proven during a recent industrial fire at Western Pulp in Jacksonville.

“We had a unit on the scene of that fire within two minutes of the call,” JFD Chief Keith Fortner said during an after-action report given to Jacksonville City Council members recently. “We had 70 people on the scene at the height of the incident with no injuries reported – that’s pretty impressive. Rusk and Earle’s Chapel both assisted in fighting the blaze, but Gallatin, Maydelle and North Cherokee were all on call to take care of any calls received for the duration of the Western Pulp fire. We had it covered, they had it covered – it was covered. That’s the remarkable thing.”

Fortner reported responding firefighters had the conflagration under control within seven hours of the initial call, and had the site completely extinguished in three days. The departments responding used more than 3 million gallons of water to put out the fire at the plant, thanks to the many trucks that responded to the scene.

Local fire departments are always looking to improve their equipment and vehicles and are able to do so much of the time through local, state and federal grants.
“In fact, we’ve currently got a new truck being built at Wildfire in Dallas,” Gray said. “It should be ready in early 2019.”

MVFD is also currently working on constructing a second fire station, in order to improve response time and be able to house it’s ever expanding fleet of vehicles.

Earle’s Chapel VFD just received a $200,000 grant from the Texas Forest Service to purchase a new truck, too.

“We’re already shopping,” Hunt said with a laugh. “We’ve got five trucks, and this one’s going to replace one of our oldest ones when it gets here.”

ECVFD also utilizes a rescue boat – a vehicle other local departments don’t quite have as much use for.

“We’ve got the Neches River and Lake Jacksonville in our area, so we use it a bit more than other districts around here might, Hunt said. “We’ve, fortunately, not had to use it all that much since we got it, about two years ago. We did use it during Hurricane Harvey when we went to help in Lumberton, so it was nice to have then.”

MVFD boasts 12 members, three of whom are women and all of whom participate in monthly in-house training and will receive training through Texas A&M’s Engineering Extension Service Texas in July. Earle’s Chapel Volunteer Fire Department includes 18 members, including two women. According to the department’s website, JFD employs 20 full-time, paid firefighters who cover three 24-hour shifts at the present date and all of its firefighters are cross-trained to be EMT (Emergency Medical Technicians).

JFD is also home to Fire Marshal Jeremy Pate’s office.

“The fire marshal's office is responsible for determining fire causes within the city of Jacksonville, a service that is also available upon request to other area fire departments,” the department’s website states. “The fire marshal assigned to this division performs formal fire inspections, fire investigation, and assists with other activities assigned to fire prevention. These inspectors are the “police” of the fire department and investigate all fire-related crimes within the city. Inspectors are state-certified firefighters, law enforcement officers, and arson investigators, and have the same authority as any Texas peace officer.

“Inspectors are also responsible for investigating fires that resulted in burn injuries and/or fatalities, as well as all misdemeanor offenses involving fires, such as false alarms and criminal mischief fires. In cases involving juveniles, inspectors either counsel the juvenile and his/her parents or refer the juvenile to the police department.”

Hunt said of all the equipment a department needs to be successful, its people are the most important.

“Personnel at the volunteer level, anyway, is tricky sometimes,” Hunt said. “People care and want to get involved and volunteer, but once they get trained and realize how much time something like this takes up – everyone’s got busy lives and they’re just getting more and more busy. People nowadays work two jobs and that doesn’t leave much room for much else. But we’ve always got our core groups that can be counted on to be there when needed and we’re always welcoming new people who’d like to get involved and become a member of that core group, too.”

To become a member of the Maydelle Volunteer Fire Department, call Gray at (903) 68304797 for application.

“Once submitted, it will be processed which includes going through a background check,” Chief Gray said. “If that process is passed, the applicant will go in front of a membership selection committee for an interview.”

Donations to Maydelle Volunteer Fire Department can be mailed to Gray’s Automotive c/o MVFD, 703 N. Main St., Rusk, TX 75785.

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer of Earle’s Chapel Volunteer Fire Department can call Hunt at (903) 721-9345 for an application.

Monetary donations may be sent to Earle’s Chapel VFD, PO Box 1927, Jacksonville, TX 75766.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)’s website, Americans observe Fire Prevention Month each year during October, in order to remember the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

“The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 killed more than 250 people and left more than 100,000 homeless,” the NFPA’s website nfpa.org, states. “The fire, which allegedly started in a barn, also burned more than 2,000 acres and destroyed about 17,400 structures. The three-day fire, which started Oct. 8, did most of its damage on Oct. 9, 1871, which is why Fire Prevention Week is always held around that date. The first National Fire Prevention Day was declared by President Woodrow Wilson in 1922, and the week-long observance is the longest running public safety and health campaign on record.

“In 2000, the NFPA extended Fire Prevention Week to include the entire month of October, and entities such as public libraries, schools and utility companies joined in to spread the word not only about fire safety and prevention, but overall personal safety.”