WEYERS CAVE, Va. (WHSV) – The Weyers Cave Volunteer Fire Department is finally back to a full fleet after being down an engine for about nine months.
Last July, a car ran off the road and hit the side of Engine 53.
“It was out here on our front pad, right here in front of the station, and a vehicle ran off the road and right into the front left corner of it and did some major damage to it. So, it had been out of service up until last week,’ Alan Wampler, Fire Chief of the Weyers Cave Fire Department said.
After spending months in Maryland getting repaired, the firetruck is ready to run calls again.
“It went to Grasonville, Maryland up at Patriot Fire Incorporated to get work done to it, and it took a little longer than they wanted and we wanted, but eventually it got done,” Wampler said.
When vehicles of this caliber are being repaired, it takes many critical tests to make sure they are back running smoothly for emergencies. There was a lot of work done to the front end of the engine to fully repair the damage that was done, along with a certified pump test and bringing the engine back up to the Department of Transportations standards.
Being down an entire engine in a volunteer department that covers a large area can cause stress among the firefighters and the community, but Weyers Cave was lucky with the timing of this incident.
“A couple of weeks prior to that we had just received our new engine that we got custom built out of Pearce Manufacturing in Appleton Wisconsin, and so, we had just gotten that engine in service two weeks prior to this accident happening,” Wampler said.
The department always has two front-line engines and with the long repair time of the damaged engine, The Weyers Cave Fire Department had to pull an engine out of reserve to run for the past nine months.
“We still had two engines running calls until this one got fixed, and now we’re able to have the reserve again,” Wampler said.
The entire department is excited to have Engine 53 back as it serves as their main vehicle for highway wrecks.
“This engine is the engine designed to run wrecks on the interstate, or wrecks in general, but because we run a lot on the interstate, it carries a lot more equipment,” Wampler said. “We were down that equipment for a long time, or we spaced it out among other apparatus, but it’s nice having it back where we can have all of the equipment back on one piece.”
Firefighters become accustomed to the trucks they ride in every day so getting Engine 53 back gave a sense of comfortability to the Weyers Cave fire department.
“Our membership is happy to have it back. It’s kind of like your own vehicle so to say, and when you get repairs to it, you’re always wanting to get it back because you’re just comfortable riding in it,” Wampler said.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved.
