With the help of its new rescue trailer, the Hillsdale City Fire Department is now better prepared to help at any rescue scene, according to Police and Fire Chief Scott Hephner.
During floods last week, the fire department used the trailer to help various homeowners in a subdivision off of State Road.
“We assisted in pumping out a flood zone because there were some houses there that were getting flooded,” Hephner said. “In this particular case last week, we took 1,000 feet of hose. Being able to just grab the rolls of extra fire hose and put them in the back of this trailer was way more efficient than trying to hoist them up on a huge fire truck and get them back off the fire truck. It was very efficient and very helpful.”
The trailer is a V-nose trailer about 14 feet long and 8 feet high, according to Hephner. In recent months, his team has stocked the trailer with tools like ropes, ladders, toe-straps, and wood beams. They are accepting donations if people have jacks, chains, toe-straps, or other equipment they no longer use.
“We started outfitting it toward the end of summer, building shelving in it, racks, things like that,” Hephner said. “We had a lot of equipment but it would be spread out between either the fire trucks or in the station. We went through all of our equipment to decide what should be in this trailer that we wouldn’t have to look for. It would all be in this trailer with a specific intent.”
Hephner said the fire department welcomes community members to donate any equipment they might have, such as jacks and chain saws.
“We’ll never know what exactly we might need,” Hephner said.
The fire department received the trailer as a donation in the spring of 2021, and since then, it has been slowly adding more tools and equipment to prepare emergency responders.
“We started outfitting it toward the end of summer, building shelving in it, racks, things like that,” Hephner said. “It would all be in this trailer with a specific intent.”
At first, the department wasn’t sure what emergencies they would use the trailer for, Hephner said. When the county faced extreme weather in 2021, however, firefighters put the trailer to good use.
“Last year, when we had the three major storms that hit our area, including the EF1 tornado, it became evident to us we needed to ensure that we could get from our fire department to a rescue scene, whether it’s a house or something else, without depending on anybody else,” Hephner said.
Jack McLain, Hillsdale Township zoning officer, said the trailer would benefit more than just residents in the city of Hillsdale.
“It’s gonna be great for the mutual aid because we all help each other,” McLain said. “If we get in a spot and need the equipment they have, they’ll bring it to us. It’s great for everybody concerned. I think it’s a great thing.”
The fire department has held several meetings recently about its mission in serving the Hillsdale community, Hephner said.
“It could be the college; it could be the whole city that gets hit with something. If we need to be able to go and get there, we want all of our equipment in one place,” Hephner said. “Not getting there and not helping is not going to be an option. That’s not part of our mission. We will figure it out. We will get there.”
Hephner said it’s important to be self-sufficient and ready for anything.
“We may not be able to rely on anybody else. I’ve had people ask, ‘Well, just have the street department come in with a front end loader tractor to move stuff out of the way so you can get there.’ My response is, ‘How is that person going to get in to get the tractor if there are trees down everywhere?’”