On top of Old Smoky

Sep. 25—After several decades of protecting their rural community with hand-me-down apparatuses and a menagerie of makeshift, retrofitted rigs — think old pickup truck turned firetruck — Prospect Rural Fire Protection District will receive its first-ever, brand-spanking-new, custom-built fire engine next month.

The new rig, being purchased through a grant from the Office of the State Fire Marshal, will cost $165,000. That's 50% more than the annual district budget. Newly appointed Prospect Fire Chief Lyle Neville said it'll be like Christmas in October when the type 6 wildland fire engine is delivered.

Neville said his predecessor, fellow district volunteer Mike Traut, resigned as chief July 31 after his work schedule became hard to juggle with chief duties. He stayed on as a volunteer firefighter, however, and wanted to do something to make things better for the cash-strapped district.

Traut and his wife, Cynthia, spent the past year schooling themselves on grant-writing and set about to fund some needed upgrades. Traut works full time at Crater Lake National Park and was ready to pass the reins to someone else.

All told, the rural fire district, 20 miles from Crater Lake National Park, survives on just over $110,000 in property taxes each year. With those funds going largely to maintenance of an ailing and mostly ancient fleet — in addition to basic expenses and stipends for district administration — not much is left.

Neville said the Trauts obtained a pair of grants; a $48,000 Frank Ault grant from Josephine County Foundation and a $215,916 Wildland Urban Interface grant from the State Fire Marshal's Office.

"We just don't have the money here in Prospect to do much other than oil changes and buying tires when we absolutely need them," Neville said.

"This will be our first brand-new firetruck ever, in the history of the district, I think. It's pretty exciting for this to happen. The truck will cost more than our entire yearly budget."

While the small rural district "gets the job done," however necessary, Neville said its fleet is something to behold, made up of older vehicles, cast off from other departments or bought secondhand.

"We have some OLD stuff. We have things with brakes that don't really work, stuff that puts out clouds of smoke when you start 'em up. We have stuff that's been given to us by other agencies when they couldn't use it anymore," he said.

"We have lived by the reality we would NEVER have a new truck."

Giving an impromptu tour of their district fleet on a recent afternoon, Neville said district volunteers work hard to keep things maintained pretty well. An upgrade in recent years, a 4,000-gallon road waterer-turned-water tender, acquired from "somebody who knew somebody" in the district, sits at one end of the firehouse bay.

Built sometime in or just before the 1980s, the 13-speed rig is drivable by just a handful of employees. Two can drive it "pretty well," and EMT/firefighter and maintenance officer Christopher King said he'd drive it "if I absolutely have to."

With over 450,000 miles on it, the 13-speed transmission is "a little fussy," King said.

"It's not her first rodeo. She's seen some things and some stuff," joked King.

"With the 13 speeds, you're hunting around half the time wondering, 'Am I lined up with three or five?' But she holds a LOT of water."

Next to the tender sits a type 1 engine given to the department by Medford Fire last year. Built in 1996, it's one of the newer rigs for the district. Neville points out: "It can't go off the pavement — most of our rigs aren't four-wheel drive — but this is our newest firetruck right now."

Third in the bay, a medical rig — like an ambulance but not certified for transport — recently was purchased from Evans Valley Fire Department, King said, "for a sweetheart of a deal, probably because they were trying to help us."

Just outside the house, a homemade "type 6," crafted by volunteers from a 1982 Ford F250, is used for nearly all calls. Easier to maneuver than a larger truck, it's used for incidents like checking on reports of smoke.

"We paid three or four thousand for the pickup truck, and our volunteers put together some pumps and hoses and toolboxes to makeshift a 'ghetto' type 6," Neville said.

Perhaps the oldest — and certainly holding the trophy for most personality — "Old Smoky" rounds out the collection. Best known for the plumes of smoke that accompany its engine being turned over, the 1968 six-wheel drive, five-ton military brush truck has failing brakes, bad exhaust and could use a fuel injection revamp.

Part of a long-running federal program to provide fire departments with needed vehicles, Old Smoky, which maxes out at 40 miles per hour, was passed on from Medford Fire, which obtained it through the federal program.

"The government owns the chassis, but we own the pump," Neville said.

"We ran it on a fire two weeks (ago), and I made the call to not run it after the brakes went out ... during the fire."

Personality plus, Old Smoky is reliable despite being less than ready for public appearances.

"We had it in the parade a couple years ago. If you can imagine, kids standing on the side of the road hoping for candy ... and getting smoked out," Neville offered with a chuckle.

"It was not cool."

Traut defended Old Smoky's integrity ever so slightly. An added plus, King said his dad has a yard in town with three or four similar trucks that can be used for parts.

"Old Smoky is a very useful truck, as old and clapped out as it is and with as many issues as it has," offered Traut.

"It can carry 1,500 gallons of water anywhere in the district. It's a six-wheel drive with good ground clearance and good, heavy-duty suspension."

Traut said he was happy he and his wife could hone some skills as grant writers. The smaller county grant purchased some needed turnout gear and other equipment. Still on the wish list, a Zoll heart monitor, which costs $35,000 to $50,000.

"Before the grant, most of our stuff that I've seen since I've been in the department has been all hand-me-down stuff. It's very seldom that we're getting anything that hasn't been used before it goes to us," Traut said.

When he learned that the new truck would be purchased, Traut was driving and had to pull over.

"I was driving home from Medford, and the Oregon State Fire Marshal's Office called me. Asked if I was sitting down, and then they said, 'We're gonna give you the money for your type 6 engine.' I'm still kind of in disbelief that it's really happening."

Matt Brite, brush truck manager at Cascade Fire Equipment, a manufacturer of firefighting equipment based in White City, said the new truck likely would be delivered by late October. Brite said the company was always excited to provide new equipment for local fire districts.

"We distribute all over the country, but we always really like taking care of our people in Southern Oregon. Whenever we hear of local departments getting funding for apparatus, we're all-hands-on-deck trying to do business with them and get them the best bang for their buck," he said.

"There aren't any local departments or districts that don't have our apparatus in their fleet. This firetruck is going to be night and day for these guys, compared to what they're working with right now."

For info about the district, see prospectrfd.org.

An aside, the department is in dire need of a Zoll heart monitor, which costs between $35,000 and $50,000. To donate, send a check to: Prospect Rural Fire Protection District, P.O. Box 32, Prospect 97536.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 541-776-8784 or bpollock@rosebudmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal