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Texas fire department known for ragtag equipment
By Jeremy Goldmeier
The Abilene Reporter-News
WINGATE, Texas — The downside of owning a fancy, top-of-the-line firefighting truck: You have to worry about the paint job.
But when the Wingate Volunteer Fire Department rolls up to the scene of a blaze in a 30-year-old Army jeep and a couple of 1966-model trucks ... well, let's just say that those things can't get much more beat up at this point.
"When we go to a fire, we go in to fight it," said Wingate Chief Thurman Self. "We don't worry about scratching (our equipment). Some of these guys have chrome on their trucks, and they're worried about getting it in the brush."
If Self sounds a little bit prickly here, it's all in good fun.
He and his men have gotten plenty of grief during the past week, as they've shared the fire line with departments from all over the state.
They aren't the only Texas fire squad with ragtag equipment, but Self's group has developed a reputation for doing more with less.
Because they don't have goggles, the crew wears sunglasses while fighting fires. Fire jackets are usually part of their get-up, but not always.
So why not spring for more equipment?
Self has heard this question a lot lately. The long and short of it is manpower. Wingate's core firefighting crew is made up of about five or six guys.
Wingate, a town of about 100 people in Runnels County, is about 35 miles south of Abilene.
Depending on the situation, other locals might jump in on a fire run, including farmers, county employees or workers at the Wingate Gin Corp.
But spending a lot of money on new equipment hasn't made sense for a department so small, Self said. So the group has gotten used to working with what it already has. The jeep alone has gone through "three or four" motors over its life span, Self said.
Thankfully, though, the department has saved up enough money to where it has started to look at bringing in a new truck. Of course, the events of this week have put that purchase on hold.
"We've been too busy fighting fires," Self said.
Copyright 2011 The E.W. Scripps Company
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