America will be able to see the reactions of a Texas volunteer firefighter and the member of her department when she got a new home and her colleagues got a renovated fire station during the airing of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE) tonight (Monday, Dec. 3).
About a year ago, Mizzy Zdroj and her family were given a new home in Smithville, Texas, as part of the popular ABC television program. The building and unveiling of the home and station will air Monday at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time on ABC
Zdroj lost her home during the devastating Bastrop County wildfire on Labor Day weekend 2011 that consumed 34,000 acres and 1,600 homes becoming the largest wildfire in Texas history, according to a news release from ABC.
While Zdroj was fighting the fire, along with other firefighters from The Heart of Pines Volunteer Fire Department, her home and art studio burned and the fire station, which is near her home, was also badly damaged, according to a news release from local builder EFC Custom Homes, Bastrop, Texas, the contractor in charge of building the Zdrojs new home and overseeing the fire station makeover.
More than 3,000 local volunteers helped the EM:HE team construct the home while the family was on vacation for a week. Construction on the new home and work on the fire station was completed on Dec. 7, 2011.
In addition to building a new home and working on the fire station, ABC and the team of volunteers were able to secure equipment for the fire station.
Among those donating items to the fire department were:
Globe Manufacturing Inc., Pittsfield, N.H., replaced all of the station’s turnout gear with a donation of more than $50,000.
Motorola Solutions gave the department 22 new portable radios with accessories and programming.
Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus, a Union Grove, Ala., donated a brush truck.
The firefighters from Tri-Clover North Whitehall Township, Orefield, Pa. donated a 1978 Mack pumper.
“That fire was devastating to residents of Heart of the Pines,” says Rob Freese, Globe’s senior VP of marketing, “and we are so happy to help protect them so they can continue to protect the town as it rebuilds.”
During a news conference following the completion of the home in December 2011, Mizzy Zdroj thanked everyone for the effort to rebuild her home and her station.
“I could not have chosen a better place for our family to settle,” she said. “We are so blessed by this community. And I am so honored and so grateful to everyone who volunteered. …And we’re going to pay this forward. You can count on it.”
