North Texas fire department needs financial windfall to overcome equipment challenges
HENDERSON COUNTY — Tool Fire and Rescue, in Henderson County, south of Dallas, has a $75,000 budget, per the volunteer fire department. This is fiscally below the line to cover the costs of upgrading outdated equipment in the department.
TFR is in the same building as Emergency Services District #4, the district's funding administrator. Firefighters said their funding battle is not in-house; it's with the current formula for money they receive from property taxes — three cents from every dollar. ESD #4 gets roughly $210,000 annually, firefighters said; $75,000 gets set aside for TFR.
"This is, probably, I'd say, 10, 15-year-old gear," Randall Newkirk said. "That's probably 25-year-old gear right there."
Newkirk is a Lieutenant at TFR. He said the gear is either old or ill-fitting. His wife, Katelynn, is a firefighter, too. His father-in-law, Rodney McClain, is the fire chief. McClain's wife, Michelle, is the treasurer for the fire department.
TFR's needs are dire. Randall Newkirk said SCBA tanks and masks are dated, and some should be out of service. The department is crowdsourcing $300,000 to get new ones. He showed CBS News Texas one of the tanks firefighters use.
"That's all frayed and cut," Randall Newkirk said. "That's all torn up. Supposed to be out of service, technically, but we still use it."
That breathing equipment is crucial as it serves approximately 2,300 citizens in Tool and as needed in Henderson County in Emergency Services District District #4.
"You can probably last about, like, mostly like, 20 minutes before all the air goes out," Katelynn Newkirk said.
The couple has a one-year-old son, Weston. The firefighting mother said she is unwilling to take the calculated risk of entering a burning home with the equipment.
The new SCBA tanks also need compressors to refill the oxygen tanks. Randall Newkirk said the masks do not have the communication equipment. The department needs new fire hoses with better nozzles to fight fires. It's winter when fires usually increase.
"In our current situation with our engine being down and our tanker being in the shop?" Randall Newkirk said. "I'm praying that everyone is playing it safe at home."
There is a truck problem, too. Randall Newkirk said their 23-year-old fire engine creates a fog of emissions and uncertainty.
"It might get us there, but the mechanics have told us it might go out.," he said. "You know, on the way there during the fire, while it's running, pumping the pump---Or it might go out while we're driving it back?"
The fire lieutenant said TFR's tanker is in the shop nearly every quarter. So when they respond to large fires, they alert neighboring Emergency Services District Districts for mutual aid assistance.
TFR's tanker is critical because, according to firefighters, Tool doesn't have many fire hydrants.
Randall Newkirk said the fix is raising the amount of their property tax cut. In the meantime, they hope crowdsourcing will help and that other departments will donate equipment.
The potential for growth in Tool may help a department in an equipment crisis. But the fifteen-member staff hasn't grown.
"I don't have nobody at my door trying to join," Randall Newkirk said. "Nobody wants to volunteer."
According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, 65 percent of the nation's fire departments are volunteers.
TFR is applying for grants to assist in getting equipment. The grant would award ninety percent of the funding, and ten percent would have to come from TFR.
