ZALMA FIRE DEPARTMENT RECEIVES GIFT OF OLDER PUMPER FROM CAPE

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department has a long tradition of helping other community and rural fire departments in the region. Over the years, the fire department has assisted in the organization of many of these smaller fire departments, especially in rural Cape Girardeau County, and provided technical training assistance to the departments.

This tradition of assistance continued last week when the Cape Girardeau Fire Department donated a surplus pumper fire engine to the Zalma Rural Volunteer Fire Department.

This 1967 American LaFrance fire engine was one of two purchased by Cape Girardeau that year. The other American LaFrance was donated to the Gordonville Fire Department several years ago.

Zalma Fire Chief Richard Thornburgh and Gary McIntosh, president of the Zalma Rural Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. board of directors, were all smiles Thursday, as they picked up the fire engine at Fire Station Number Two, on Mt. Auburn Road.

Although the fire truck is 26 years old, Thornburgh said it means a big step up in fire protection for the people who live in and around Zalma.

"This (fire engine) will give us more pumping capacity and more dependability," he said. "Having a second pumper engine will increase our firefighting capacity tremendously." The chief said the department depends entirely on donations for its operations. "There is no way we could have bought a used fire engine like this," he said.

The Zalma Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1986 with one fire truck, a 1952 Ford chassis pumper engine with a 500 gallon water tank, and 12 volunteer firefighters.

With the addition of the American LaFrance, the department now has three vehicles, including a 1969 Chevrolet chassis with a 1,675 gallon water tank mounted on it for water supply. The number of firefighters has also increased to 18.

Before the Zalma Fire Department was created, Thornburgh said the community's only source of fire protection came from the Bollinger County Civil Defense Fire Department, located in Marble Hill, about 16 miles north of Zalma.

He said the Zalma Fire Department provides fire protection to the 118 people who live in Zalma, and the rural residents who live within an eight-mile radius of the community.

In addition to the residential structures, the town has two, two-story commercial buildings, two gasoline stations and the Zalma High School building complex. In all, there are about 600 structures in the fire protection area, most of them rural homes and farm buildings, Thornburgh said.

McIntosh learned about the surplus fire truck from Cape Girardeau Firefighter Charles Brawley, who has worked closely with the Zalma firefighters to help organize their department and train their firefighters. He has also worked with them at regional fire schools.

"I knew they were needing a newer fire engine. They've been hurting for a good, dependable pumper from the start," said Brawley. "I'm just glad we've been able to help them upgrade their level of fire protection."

Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Bob Ridgeway said the fire department's long-standing policy of donating surplus fire engines and firefighting equipment to other departments in the area, and assisting in the training of firefighters in those departments is not unique.

"Most of the larger fire departments in the country have always worked closely with smaller community and rural fire departments that surround their city by providing equipment and training assistance," said Ridgeway.

According to available records and memories of veteran firefighters in the department, Cape Girardeau has donated at least five surplus fire engines to neighboring departments during the past 30-35 years.

Other donations include: a 1967 American LaFrance that went to Gordonville; an Osh Kosh crash fire truck, a 1950 GMC pumper engine that went to the East County Fire Department; a 1950s Dodge auxiliary pumper fire truck, and an early 1950s International pumper fire truck that also went to Gordonville.

Besides helping the smaller community and rural fire departments upgrade the level of fire protection to the area they serve, Ridgeway said there is another, even more important reason why the fire department wants these smaller fire departments as well-equipped and trained as possible.

"We have mutual aid agreements with most of these surrrounding fire departments. If they need us, we go, and likewise, if we need their assistance, they respond. By helping train and equip these fire departments so they can respond to mutual aid calls, we are actually increasing the level of fire protection for Cape Girardeau and the rest of the region," Ridgeway said. "It just makes good sense all the way around."

A recent example of the mutual aid agreements between fire departments occurred earlier this year when a two-alarm fire occurred on Independence that threatened to spread to a strip shopping mall. Fire officials contacted the Scott City Fire Department and asked that several of their firefighters be sent to stand by at one of the Cape Girardeau fire stations in case additional fire calls came in.

When a portion of the old Idan Ha Hotel at Broadway and North Fountain caught fire several years ago, several rural Cape Girardeau County firefighters stood by the pumps on the fire trucks, while Cape firefighters attacked the blaze.

Ridgeway said another outgrowth of the policy of helping other fire departments was the establishment of the Cape Girardeau Regional Fire Library in the early 1980s. He said videotapes and other training aids in the library can be checked out by the regional fire departments who pay a small membership fee each year.

"That library is now second to none. It's just as good a training library as you'll find in any major city fire department," said Ridgeway. "There is no way the individual members could purchase with their limited funds what we have in the library today. But by pooling our resources together we can purchase more tapes and training aids for the use of all of the members."

Ridgeway said he would like to see within the next 5-10 years the the establishment of a regional fire training academy in Cape Girardeau that would provide the same type of professional training at similar facilities at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and in St. Louis and Memphis. He said the academy would provide firefighter and industrial firefighter training for regional fire departments and industrial fire departments in the region.