BON WIER - Fire Chief Jim Dubose couldn't hold back from getting behind the steering wheel of his station's newly delivered, donated fire engine.
"Drives like a million dollars," DuBose said when he finished.
The power steering's great, and a loose five-speed gearshift is nothing he and the 20 or so other volunteers can't get used to.
Nearly five months after losing a truck to a fallen tree during Hurricane Rita, a replacement truck was unloaded Thursday and cruised down FM 363. It arrived two months after the Bon Wier Volunteer Fire Department was told a Pennsylvania fire station was willing to donate it, but the locals couldn't find the means to ship it.
DuBose and his men never had the money to pay for the priceless drive. The 750-gallon pumper, 45,092 miles removed from its 1973 manufacture by Mack, purred like nothing the gathered volunteers had heard for four months. Trade publications put the truck's price between $30,000 and $40,000.
The firefighters had longed to hear the diesel engine's noise since a pine tree took out their station's west end, crushing the building's aluminum frame and smashing the old truck's cab. The station was out of its top truck, even if that No. 1 truck was built in 1967.
The department has other trucks, but without the destroyed pumper, which DuBose said the station bought in about 1980 for $2,100 from Bridge City, they felt strapped. A couple of brush-fire trucks and the other 750-gallon, white-painted pumper weren't enough.
Word was quickly sent out by volunteer Sean Mills, who called Congressman Kevin Brady's office for help. Jasper Fire Chief James Gunter sent out an e-mail that John Curtaccio, the fire chief in Brighton Township, Pa., said he received.
Curtaccio had an old truck the township was having trouble selling. Why not give it to an area struggling after Hurricane Rita?
"Instead of it rotting or having the thing sent away for scrap, why not try and find a fire department that has some use for it?" Curtaccio said by telephone from his home.
Such graciousness surprised DuBose. From Pennsylvania, he thought, a truck for us?
"We had heard so much junk from FEMA and other folks involved that never panned out," DuBose said. "There were people running around here telling you everything you wanted to hear."
Still, it was true - a truck for them.
One problem. How to get it here.
The volunteers sell barbecue every year at the Newton County Fair and make roughly $1,000, Dubose, who's been chief for 10 years and a volunteer for 15, said. The station receives $100 a month from the county and relies on donations for equipment upkeep.
"A lot of months, that doesn't even buy us the gasoline," DuBose said of the meager income.
It also doesn't pay the $2,500 to $3,000 it would take to get the truck here by flatbed.
Luckily, DuBose said a Dallas Morning News' report on Bon Wier's plight caught the attention of officials at Greatwide Logistics Services, a Dallas-based transportation and trucking company.
A truck and driver, Eugene Hatch, were donated. Hatch started his volunteer tour in Beaver County, Pa., Tuesday afternoon. He arrived here at 9 on Thursday morning.
"It's nothing like a good load," Hatch said. "Heck, you can give a little charity."
Some lagniappe was along for the ride -17 donated oxygen tanks and a 3,500-watt generator.
"It's inspiring to the community and is A-1 as far as I'm concerned," firefighter Carl Francis said.
After the truck was unloaded at noon and just before DuBose took off on his short jaunt, 81-year-old John Roy decided DuBose shouldn't have all the fun. Like a schoolboy visiting the local fire station, Roy, the Bon Wier fire station money manager, jumped onto the truck's rear bumper and held on, despite an onlooker's concern.
Bubby Lynch, 57, and the 72-year-old Francis, both volunteer firefighters, joined Roy on the back as DuBose shifted into first gear for a moderate spin down FM 363 and back.
"Just a ride" - that's all Roy said he needed. "I wanted to hear that old motor. That old thing sounds good."
"We're tickled to death," DuBose said.
