Next Business/Board Meeting: 7:00 pm on Thursday, March 2, 2006

The title says it all. See you there! Hope to have the minutes of the February meeting posted at least a few days before the meeting.

- Glenn

Community and Frankie to the Rescue of Margaritaville!

As detailed below in an email by Fire Chief Phyllis Jackson, the training session last Thursday, 16 February, came to an abrupt halt for those Firefighters who stayed late to drive Engine No. 1 to top it off from the nearest hydrant, which just happens to belong to Athens-Clarke. I assumed the goal was Double Bridges Road, but her post suggests Belmont Road, perhaps just to test out an alternative hydrant. The truck died.

The engine still has 'North Oconee County' written on its lime-green doors (one reason Oconee gets credit in the Oglethorpe Echo for coming to fires; it is really Wolfskin in disguise!). Some of us call it 'Margaritaville' but I understand it is a sincere gift or loan or one-dollar lease of a good piece of equipment from Oconee County in appreciation for helping them cover the tricorner area around Belmont and Kennedy Roads. Anyway, it has been fairly reliable under the routine attention of Frankie. Her email follows:

FF and Friends:

Last night made me feel thankful, once again, for good neighbors, and appreciate just how much our fire department depends on the different talents and contributions of its members. Amongst them, it's Frankie -- Inventor and Mechanic Extraordinaire -- who keeps us going, wards off what would otherwise be a crisis, contributes considerably to my peace of mind.
**********************************************

Frankie to the Rescue:

Training Meeting last night was going routinely, no drama…right up until the end. I’d had a hectic week of winding up the 2004 FEMA Grant (and oh yes, that detail of the day job), thinking, “In half an hour I’ll be headed home to my supper and then collapse in a warm bed. But NO! Minutes later, the Number One Truck — our pride and joy (okay, even if it IS lime green, it’s a Class A Pumper) — is disabled and lifeless, stranded along side the Wolfskin Road.

Driver John W. and Mike G. in the truck heard a loud noise coming up the hill (approaching the crossing with Belmont) and pulled over. Sounded like some big item fell off the truck. Hmmm…what had we left sit on the tailboard? Moments later antifreeze spewed forth and John was quick to see the engine temp gauge spike.

Those of us who know less about these mechanical events assumed the truck had blown a radiator hose. Once again, a LESSON: It’s not what you don’t know that does you in, it’s what you * think* you know, that you don’t know…

Oconee County firefighter Shane Halloran came along in his big truck with lots of lights, offering help, and to carry some folks back to the station. Moral support is so very welcome, when you’re stranded.

The engine cooled down. Frankie lifted the hood and announced the real problem, far more serious than a blown hose: “You people have stripped all the belts off my truck!” One belt in shreds, a couple others off but present, one missing altogether — no fan, no power steering, no air pressure and no air brakes (thus the truck will not move), no power brakes…you get the idea. Bob Dylan song lyrics ran through my head: “You ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Not tonight.

I mentally inventoried the value of tools and equipment on this truck. Got to get it back to the station or at least parked in somebody’s yard tonight. We could call Gabriel’s wrecker for a tow. Frankie gave me a dead silent stare. How could I unleash such an insult! “MY TRUCK is going home …tonight! Have I ever not done right by MY TRUCK?”

With the bright work lights and tool kit from his truck, a flashlight, and a mechanically inventive mind, Frankie took inventory of parts and possibilities, measured distances, tried a succession of belt arrangements. He was determined to jerry rig enough belts to get the air pressure back up and cool the engine. Just the basics. Power brakes would be a plus, given the full load of water. He would take it home, with the power steering out. Not me! I have driven fireknockers with a full load (980 gal x 8 lb/gal ) that never had power steering in the first place. It’s a white knuckle trip. But a beast like this which is intended to have power steering and then loses it — that’s hugely another matter.

Frankie and Ed loosened nuts on bolts and banged on things. I worried about some small but key part falling to oblivion the tall grass beneath the engine. Yes, I would secretly watch for falling parts. The big water pumped loosened. Frankie directed Ed to hop in the cab and use the starter to keep turning the engine as Frankie worked a belt onto the pulley each time the pulley moved. I had the phone book out of my truck, secretly calling on the cell some folks along the route where we might park it ... you know, just in case. But how could I have doubted Frankie? The King of Invention and Rigging on the Fly did indeed take HIS TRUCK home. And this morning he is down at the station getting HIS TRUCK repaired and back in service. Hats off and a high five to you Frankie.

Peace in Wolfskin,

Phyllis

In one response, Ed Frey writes:

Amen. Frankie is "THE MAN!"

And as Phyllis writes, it was a community response that made it all possible. So tempting to Figherfighters and passers-by to just leave it until the morning. But what followed was at least a 2.5 hr rescue, judging from radio traffic at about 11:30 PM when I overheard Phyllis tell Oglethorpe 911 that Engine No. 1 was out of service.

A pain in the butt for everyone unlucky to be involved. But better it happened at 9 PM after training than on the way to a house fire. That is one of the reasons we do many things over and over at successive training meetings, to try to discover beforehand what is not going to work on the next fire call.

Cleanup Party

WVFD normally meets two Thursdays a month, one for training and one for business. Last night was an off-Thursday, but the supertanker is coming "sometime" this month and the firehouse had to be cleaned up to make room for it.


Above, Fire Chief Phyllis and Ed are checking the new doors Frankie put on after busting out the end wall of the kitchen/former meeting room. As you can see, it's pretty much filled with junk, some dating back 20 years or more. All of that had to be excavated and sorted into throwout or keep - Glenn, with his excellent organizational skills and lack of sentimentality, had that job.

Why bust out the kitchen? One of the firetrucks, presumably with ample amounts of lubricant, has to fit there, because the supertanker gets the big bay in the middle to the right of the kitchen in this photo.

A fine time was had by all dozen of us that showed up at 6:30. Steve, Lisa, Ed, Phyllis, Glenn, Brenda, Jim and I had already gotten well-started building shelves when the pizza arrived, carried in by Dave and Louis. Mary provided an excellent supper. Cary and Jeff were there, and later our newest firefighter Pat showed us the easiest way to move a heavy range and refrigerator - hint, it involves two brooms. Phyllis put on selected fire music and we spent some time eating and organizing and then went back to work.

Ultimately we threw out tons of stuff, got the kitchen completely cleaned out, boxed up and shelved old turnout gear, and did it all by 9:30.

Ob-cat: we're still pushing to have the supertanker named "The Genie-Weenie Supertanker".

Water Water Water Maps

WVFD is always looking for water sources; if you have one on your property and are willing to allow us to use it on occasion or in emergencies PLEASE let us know!

I have constructed, using this website for the original DOT PDF images. I am mostly interested in watersheds, so I colorized the map for clarity. The DOT maps are not recent, so there are places where roads are incomplete or non-existent (Timberland Trail isn't there, for instance, and Faust Farm Road is incomplete). If you see a mistake or incompleteness, feel free to let me know; better yet, sketch it in and email your correction to Wayne.

Here's a very small version of the much larger map, including the Wolfskin District in southwest Oglethorpe County:


Feel free to right-click and save it for yourself as a printable image.

There's a larger version (460 kb) of about the same area that you can download here.

And if you want the whole of Oglethorpe County (1.8 MB!) you can download that here. This version is sizeable and it was my thought to be able to print it out poster size. So far I haven't found a cheap and convenient way to do that. But it would look nice on a wall, wouldn't it?

-Wayne

Monthly Business Meeting and Dry Weather Coming

Last night was our monthly business meeting; a somewhat disappointing turnout but we accomplished a lot and were pleased to see John Fuller, one of our trustees present.

In the next few days I'll put up our 1-3-5-year plan for fans of WVFD to look at. This was Fire Chief Phyllis Jackson's idea, and Ed Frey's implementation, and we were very pleased to see that we've already accomplished all but two goals for the first year and have already accomplished one of the three-year goals.

We hadn't expected to get the supertanker until 2007. The combined efforts of Phyllis, Cary, Glenn and several others to land the supertanker grant, and the overwhelming generous response from our friends and neighbors in the Wolfskin Community accomplished this. Congratulations to everyone!

A La Nina event has been declared by NOAA in the Pacific. La Nina is predicted to last 3-6 months, but remember the two-year drought here of the late 1990-2000s was brought by an unexpected series of La Ninas lasting for much longer than expected.

This is part of the El Nino-La Nina cycle. In the Southeast US a La Nina means drier weather as we move into the warmer months. VFDs are going to have to be more diligent, and residents are going to have to be much more careful about fire; lack of rain as the temperatures increase may lead to some dry conditions around here.

We'll keep you updated, and be sure to watch the Georgia Fire Danger link on the right sidebar!

-Wayne

UPDATE: Phyllis emails me that

...RE: Tanker in 3-yr plan. Had we NOT gotten the grant,
this tanker we would have afforded in the plan would
not be a super vacuum tanker. Not even close. (More
like an old milk truck.) These vacuum tankers are so
new, most F.D.s have never seen one operate. We have
a number of skeptics waiting to see it. Tony assures
me not to worry one bit--they will be blown away. (Or
sucked away.)

.
We certainly want to hold a "truckwarming event", when the tanker arrives sometime this month!

Minutes of Monthly Board Meetings

As information items to the Community, on the right Sidebar there is a new catagory called 'Minutes of Board Meetings' with links to the minutes of the monthly Board/Business meetings of the Wolfskin Volunteer Fire Department. These are submitted by Firefighter and Secretary Lisa Vaughan and will be approved or approved with modifications during the next Board meeting. If they are modified, those will be incorporated into the minutes linked here. Some editing may be done for a consistent format from month to month, but will not be done to be politic. What Lisa emails the Board as the minutes, pending approval, gets posted here.

The intent is to let our commnity members know what happens at these meetings and thereby encourage input from the community. Let us know if you find these helpful.

- Glenn