Looking Back

Ever wonder how Wears Valley got it’s first Fire truck? Where did it come from? Whay did we need it? The following article was run on August 19, 1986 in the Toledo BLADE and answers a lot of these questions

Single Truck Solves problems for area, Tennessee Fire Department

Mark Zaborney

Blade staff writer

Northwoods 500 – gallon, 1952 Ford pumper was up for sale, but no one offered to buy it. The fire truck continued to take up space at Fire station No.1.

At the same time, the Wears Valley, Tenn., volunteer fire department – formed early this year after insurance companies told many homeowners they would not be covered because they live too far from the nearest station – was scouring the countryside for a truck.

The Wears Valley department which serves about 400 households in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, started fighting fires using six fire rakes, borrowed from the National Park Service, and a 1952 GI bush fire truck, borrowed from the National Forestry Service, with a 275 gallon tank to hold water, a three- horsepower pump, and 100 feet of garden hose.

Had to Be a Source

Wears Valley, meet Northwood.

“We felt like there had to be sources of fire trucks that were being written off, and we just sent a committee north, checking with fire departments and getting acquainted,” said Wayne Center, Chairman of the Wears Valley Departments Board of Directors.

One of the stops was a fire truck dealer in Michigan, and on the way home, the committee made a stop in the Toledo area.

“They were in a motel and they went to call fire departments nearby,” Mr. Center said. What I’m saying is they were doing their homework away from home. They got in touch with Northwood by accident. It was not a deliberate, pinpointed address. Stroke of luck for us, to be sure.”

Fund Raising Events

The Wears Valley department offered to buy the truck for $1,000, which it raised at a large community supper and through donations. The department also held an auction and raffled off items donated by residents: quilts, motorcycles, a shotgun.

Although the truck still could pass all the pump tests and was kept as a backup unit, it only had been used by Northwood once or twice in three years. Parts were becoming hard to find, and with more than five trucks parked inside, No.1 station was getting too crowded.

It’s kind of hard to give up something that’s part of you,” said Northwood Fire Chief William St. Claire, who joined the department 30 years ago. “That’s one of the first trucks there at station 1; they started in 1952.”

For Wears Valley, the Ford pumper is just right. ”That was an extremely fine truck the boys brought back from Northwood,” Mr. Center said. “Even though it has age, we consider it a new truck to us. It’s in mint condition. It’s a beauty.”

About the time of the Northwood deal, Wears Valley found another fire truck through a dealer and purchased it as well.

Mr. Center got the idea to send a committee north from his experience in the machinery business. Often he has found farm implements that are “very effective as equipment here” from farms up north where the owners have used up their tax depreciation on the items or from owners who are consolidating their farms and want to unload smaller pieces of equipment.

Area Departments Assisted

Wears Valley has needed it’s own fire department for a long time, according to Mr. Center. Before it was formed in January, fires in town were fought by departments from Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, or Walden’s Creek – nearby eastern Tennessee towns.

“When a fire starts, you only got a few minutes, and they have their own districts, too, “ Mr. Center said. “They got here as quickly as they could, but distance and the kind of terrain makes it difficult.”

For instance, Sevierville, the county seat, is 12 miles away.

Wears Valley is a growing town, as well, he said, and with more people living close to timberlands and a National Park, the fire danger increased.

Public Meeting Held

“Just like anything else, you put it off. When the sun shines you don’t fix the roof; when it rains you don’t necessarily fix the ditch,” Mr. Center said. “But necessity just came along.”

It was an insurance problem that brought people out to a meeting in January called to form the department. “We took 27 or 287 names that first meeting,” Mr. Center said, The department now has 37 volunteers.

Soon, Wears Valley will mark another right of passage. The department’s trucks will move from the driveways of the fire chief and assistant chief into the almost finished fire station, under construction since April.

(The original article accompanied a picture of Arthur Clabo, Dale Huskey, Joe Cooper, and earl Weeks, who were shown talking to William St. Claire, Fire chief in Northwood.)

Visit http://tinyurl.com/6xaxpep to see the original article online as well as the picture