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Donated Pumper Helps TX Dept. Rebuild from Hurricane

Dec. 22, 2017

Philomont, VA, firefighters donated a 2001 pumper to Port Aransas, where most of their equipment was destroyed.

Source Firehouse.com News

Officials from Philmont, Port Aransas and Texas A&M Forest Service pose for a photo with the donated pumper.

When Philomont firefighters placed a new pumper in service this fall, they hoped to find a second life for older apparatus.

The department placed Engine 608, a 2017 Smeal pumper, in service just as Hurricane Harvey decimated communities in Texas and Louisiana.

"When we saw the flooding and damage on TV, we went to the fire chief here in Loudoun (County) and asked what we could do to help," Philomont Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rick Pearsall stated in a press release. "The fire service is a brotherhood and everyone does what they can to help each other."

Loudoun County and Philmont fire officials reached out to the Texas A&M Forest Service to see if their 2001 KME pumper would help departments damaged by the Aug. 25 hurricane.

The pumper was donated to the Port Aransas Volunteer Fire Department, located on a peninsula island in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the department's apparatus and equipment was destroyed.

Pearsall and Assistant Chief Pete West drove the pumper about 1,600 miles from Virginia to Texas. It took them 27 hours and the apparatus averaged 7 gallons of fuel per mile.

In a formal ceremony on Dec. 6, the pumper was turned over to Port Aransas firefighters.

“The Helping Hands Program is aptly named,” said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp. “Just as the Texas A&M Forest Service has helped its neighbors in the past, now Texas needs help to recover from Hurricane Harvey. I want to personally thank the Philomont Volunteer Fire Department for this life-saving donation and especially the volunteers who drove the truck cross-country to deliver it.”