Saturday, September 28, 2024
The Cresson Volunteer Fire Department "sparked” enthusiasm Friday evening during the unveiling of the department’s new tanker truck and station expansion.
During the multi-part event, Cresson Fire Chief Ron Becker announced the recipients of the Chisholm Trail 100 Club’s Lifesaving Awards before launching into a presentation regarding the new tanker truck.
“I am very blessed,” he said. “The Texas (A&M) Forest Service runs a program whereby they will give you a grant up to a certain amount of money to acquire a fire apparatus. I applied for a grant for Cresson to get an additional tanker truck back in July of 2015. But because they're kind of stingy down in Austin, they don't fund this very well, and it was quite a number of years later that the Forest Service advised us they were going to award us the grant. Now, prices go up, so their grant wasn't enough to totally pay for the truck — but under the leadership of President Gerald Miller, and the Johnson County Emergency Service District (#1), they provided a program to help us also acquire new apparatus.”
Becker explained this 4,000-gallon tanker will be the third water tanker truck the department will have on the road in Cresson. Tanker 30 was lovingly dedicated in memory of Assistant Chief Bob Cornett, who passed away earlier this year.
"The tradition for new apparatus coming online at the fire department is you wet them down ... and that tanker is going to come around here and made ready to be pushed in to the new additional building that we have back behind here,” Becker said.
Years ago, fire apparatuses were pulled by horses. After returning from a fire, the apparatus and horses were cooled off by wetting and washing them down. The tradition began that when a new apparatus is first placed into service, it is ceremonially wet down and washed down.
The Cresson Volunteer Fire Department continued that tradition June 14, by wetting down its new Tanker 30 with master streams from Engine 30 and Engine 330.
After the tanker wetdown ceremony, members of the CVFD wiped down the truck with rags. Once completed, the tanker was ready for its new home in the department’s station expansion.
“The Hood County commissioners have been gracious enough to provide us funding through ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) to expand our facilities here,” Becker said. “You look around and see we've got shelves sitting with stuff everywhere, and we're going to be able now to move trucks around a little bit better. Frankly, we're parking trucks outside right now, but we will cut the ribbon on this new building and layout the new tanker to be pushed into the new building.”
Before the tanker could be pushed into the station, however, another tradition had to take place. This tradition — called “topping out” — is when an evergreen tree is placed on top of a new building.
"It all started when the last beam was placed in a facility like this on a new construction project,” said David Hendrix, member of the CVFD. “The milestone is commemorated by painting a beam white. I don't know that we did that in here, but that white beam is normally signed by the construction crew, the owners, the dignitaries, and banking officials for posterity, so each beam usually has an evergreen tree placed on top of it.
“In the steel trade, the tree signifies that construction has reached the sky without loss of life or injury, so it's a very important tradition and holds a high significance. The tradition was originally spread by the Vikings. They reached America through the Norwegian iron workers in 1898, so it's been a tradition that's been around for a long, long time. The tree actually symbolizes positive things and good luck for future occupants — which definitely we need as a fire department serving four counties."
Once the tree was placed on top of the new station expansion, Tanker 30 was officially pushed in — kicking off the rest of the event’s festivities.
Residents had the opportunity to engage with local firefighters through demonstration stations, where they could handle a real fire hose and use extrication tools — fostering community connection even on a smaller scale.
Brave community members were also invited by the CVFD to experience riding in a basket attached to an aerial work platform at the end of a ladder.
In total, 200 guests braved the heat Friday to help CVFD celebrate three major accomplishments: the new fire tanker, station expansion, and the recognition of several local first responders who saved not only one, but two lives.
“We had fun visiting with lots of our community members in a setting different than being called to their side for some problem,” Cresson Volunteer Fire Department wrote in a post on its Facebook page. “Thank you so much for letting us earn the right to serve you and thank you to all the surrounding government agencies (City of Cresson, Hood County, Johnson County ESD 1, Parker County ESD 6, Tarrant County ESD1, Texas Forest Service) who make it possible for us to do what we do. We're humbled by how many of you turned out to join us on a hot Friday afternoon.”
