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Profile 2013
from the federal government came from donations and ingenuity. Last September a boot drive brought in about $800, which was used to replace batteries in the tanker truck and emergency response vehicle, as well as a defibrillator. Turnout gear for the firefighters had been donated as well as purchased through a FEMA grant. Cox said the only way they could raise the 5 percent match for the grant was thanks to some good fortune. “We got lucky,” Cox said. “They closed this old school up the road here and the guy who bought it didn’t want the playground equipment. So we made a deal to take that equipment down and we took it and sold it to a church in northern Ohio.” The department’s rescue truck was donated to them by the Coal Grove VFD. There was an issue with the starter, Cox said, which he fixed himself. The Ironton Moose Lodge donated a trailer, which hooks to the back of the ATV for rescues. Hecla Water provides their service free of charge to the department. “That is great because if you have to go to a pond to fill your truck and get dirty water, it saves a lot of damage on the equipment,” Cox said. For other equipment, like the Jaws of Life and thermal imaging camera, searching for the best deals is something to Cox has become quite accustomed. Cox said he bought the thermal imaging camera for about $1,500 in 2010, just a fraction of the nearly $15,000 that the equipment usually costs. Looking to the future This year, Cox is putting together a list of equipment for another fire marshal’s grant, should the department be approved. One piece of equipment that Cox has been pushing for is an airboat. In May 2010, heavy rains caused flash flooding all over the county and brought high waters into the fire station. “We had one call for a water rescue where a man was on top of his vehicle floating away,” Cox recalled. “I had water come over the hood of the truck. The headlights were under water.” Cox said airboats skim the surface of the water and float over top of unseen debris, whereas other boats run the risk of getting debris caught in the motor, with the possibility of another person being stranded in rushing water. Training is another area Cox said he would like to improve on. In addition to the yearly countywide fire school, training in the fire station would be ideal. “Long term, I’d like to be able to get more training for our people,” Cox said. “We don’t have the resources to do in-house training the way I’d like to. I’m working on changing that with this current grant to try to get some projectors to do video training inhouse. Hopefully, if we get the grant, we can have a weekly session.” Henry also said he is working with more of his dogs to train them like Shadow. Ideally, Henry said he would like to have three rescue dogs ready to help if needed. “Shadow is the No. 1 right now,” Henry said. “He can find anything if you have a sample of it.” On the way to becoming an expert rescuer is Henry’s other Weimaraner, Sophie.
Sophie recently weaned a litter of pups and Henry kept one to train as well. “I kept the best of the litter out of this one,” Henry said. Henry said he hopes to also have three handlers trained to take the dogs out if there is an emergency. Everything the department has, Cox said, is ready to aid any part of the county, or even the state, if needed. “Everything we’ve got here helps us, but at any given time it could be moved to any other part of this county,” he said. “If Ironton needs that, we go. If Upper, Coal Grove need it, we go. We’ve actually been to South Point three different times on things that they’ve had, search and rescue, brush fires. We have supplied water for Ironton. … All the departments work extra well together.” •