It definitely was a Good Friday for the firefighters who man the Ft. Pike Volunteer Fire Department.
The 200 residents of the area between the Rigolets and Chef Pass, known as Lake Catherine can breath a sigh of relief that they now have a functioning fire engine six years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the fire station and all the equipment.
Friday morning, St. Tammany Fire District One donated a 1999 fire engine to the Ft. Pike Volunteer Fire Department, complete with ladders, hoses and other equipment.
Firefighters from St. Tammany Parish, Hancock County and New Orleans all showed up to watch as FD1 Chief Larry Hess hand over the keys and license plate to Ft. Pike Assistant Chief Chuck Schmalz.
When Katrina came through in 2005, it destroyed the FPVFD station and the fire engine as well as displacing many of the area’s residents. Thanks to FEMA money, the department was able to rebuild the fire station in June of 2011. But they still did not have any fire equipment or engine to fight fires.
“We had some donations, but the equipment was so old, we couldn’t get them insured, which meant we could not fight fires,” Schmalz said. The only thing they had was a pickup truck equipped with a water pump and that was not a big help.
Schmalz said the area has been lucky because there were no major fires since Katrina. However, when a fire did break out, the New Orleans Fire Department, which has a station 12 miles away, would help out, and so would FD1.
“They have helped us many times, and we have a mutual aid understanding where we help them out,” Hess said.
The idea of donating the fire engine was quite by accident, according to Hess. A car enthusiast, Hess had entered one of his classic cars in an auto show in Slidell. His car was parked next to one owned by Mary Bryan and Claude Cutitto, both Fort Pike residents and volunteer firefighters. Hess noticed the firefighter decal on their car and he started talking to the couple.
“Mary told me of their dilemma, and I told her that we could help her out,” Hess said. “It was very coincidental and spontaneous.”
Hess went to the FD1 Board of Commissioners and got their approval to donate the department’s reserve fire engine. Hess explained that a 1999 fire engine is still in good shape but not for a department as big as FD1. They had just bought a brand new reserve engine and the board gave their blessing to the donation in February.
FD1 Chief of Administration Chris Kaufmann explained that used fire engines have almost no resale value and donating it to the FPVFD was better than scrapping it.
“Besides, bigger departments should pass down equipment to smaller departments,” Kaufmann said. “And out here, they are on their own.”
With more people coming back to the area, there are more houses being built, Bryan said, and the risk of fires is getting bigger.
“We are fighting to come back and we need this,” Bryan said.
Schmalz said there is another big benefit to getting the fire engine. After Katrina, fire insurance premiums along Lake Catherine went through the roof because the area’s fire rating went up to 10, the worst rating.
Cutitto said his premiums went from $1,500 a year to almost $5,000.
“With this engine, our fire rating automatically goes down to a 1,” Schmalz said. That means much lower insurance premiums.
“St. Tammany really helped us a lot,” Schmalz said. “This is the first step in getting back up as a fire department. The next step is getting the insurance, and we should be operational in a month.”
Dan Fraiser, a Slidell resident who is a FPVFD volunteer firefighter is glad that he now has good equipment to fight fires.
“Now we can use something other than a pickup truck,” Fraiser said.
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