They’re more than volunteers Rockdale VFD members serve and sacrifice to keep town safe
By Marie bakken
Reporter Staff Writer
To say that the Rockdale Volunteer Fire Department and its members are real assets to the area would be a huge understatement.
Established sometime in the 1870’s, the cornerstone at the station shows 1872 as the founding year, the RVFD has been just that, volunteer. Created by members who put their lives in danger to protect the city and its residents when the time arises.
As early records are not available to determine the actual date of the department’s birth, it is safe to say the RVFD is a timeless treasure.
There is not a fire, wreck, and sometimes, medical calls, that the RVFD isn’t a part of in Rockdale and its coverage area. Expand that thought to when the department is toned out to assist the other rural VFD in the area like Minerva, Alcoa, Milano, Black Jack, Thorndale and Tanglewood, to name a few.
History
Apparatus used by the early RVFD members were hand-drawn hose carts pulled to the scenes and in the early 1900s, the department owned a horse-drawn hook and ladder wagon, a sample of modern technology in that time. A town bell would sound atop city hall, alerting the firemen it was time for action.
In 1915, the city council decided to purchased motorized pumper for the department. The 350 gallons per minute combination pumper and hose wagon was named “Nancy Franks”, according to a RVFD history put together by the late John Weed, Jr., father of local physician John Weed III.
He wrote that the pumper could not be stored in City Hall, so it was parked in the Gaither Motor Co. shop.
“Nancy Franks” served its purpose until 1930, when the council again purchased a newer pumper for the department. The new one could pump 600 GPM and could go up to 60 mph.
City Hall was remodeled and a fire station built in the rear back in the mid-1930s. The Rockdale Volunteer Fire Department was incorporated by a charter issued on June 13, 1936.
The two pumper trucks served the department until 1950 when the council purchased a new 500 GPM to replace “Nancy Hanks”, which was sold to an antique car buyer for $1.50…yes one dollar and fifty cents.
When Alcoa came to town in the 1950s, the community began to expand, as did the need for more RVFD equipment. Through the next two decades, fundraising efforts and purchases by the Rockdale city council saw three fire trucks purchased and the fire station remodeled and enlarged.
Currently the department has 35 members, two Class A engines, one rural engine, two brush trucks, one rescue truck, one command vehicle and one self-containing breathing apparatus (SCBA) trailer.
Disastrous fires
Sadly, the RVFD has seen its fair share of destructive, disastrous fires.
In the early 1900s, the Mundine Hotel, located on the corner of Main and Milam burned and five members of the Brooks family perished. They are buried together in a mass grave at the I.O.O.F. cemetery in north Rockdale. The ground floor of the hotel was rebuilt and now houses McVoy Feed Store.
The most tragic fire for the department was on Sept. 3, 1935 when two firemen were manning a hose line on the front wall at the Scarbourgh and Hicks fire at Cameron and Ackerman streets. The wall collapsed on the two firemen, burying them. They were rescued quickly, but died later from their injuries. Those two RVFD members, W.J. Hooper and J.W. Williams, are honored with a granite stone that marks the occasion on the south lawn of the current Lucy Hill Patterson Library, site of the fire.
A small, but tragic fire occurred in the mid 1950s when in a frame house on the corner of White and Hickory streets went a blaze, killing four small children.
More recent and rememerable structure fires include the Brookshire Brothers grocery store in 1998, along with numerous large acre wildland fires.
Safety and Training
Rockdale VFD fire chief Warren “Dude” Matous said that year-to-date, the department has completed over 800 total training hours.
Matous added that the department is constantly trying to increase the value of training, especially in technique and strategy.
The amount of calls that the department has responded to this year is up from recent years and Matous attributes that to the increase in activity in the area.
He said that the department is also focusing on new knowledge of how to maintain the equipment they have.
“The knowledge is with those older guys who don’t have many years left to serve,” Matous said. “We are trying to get newer, younger guys in here to learn all that stuff.”
He continued in saying that everybody that wants to go to training goes, whether it be the annual Fire School at Texas A&M University, or a small one day training in a nearby county.
“If they want to go, we send them,” Matous said.
Along with training comes the importance of safety for the members of the fire department.
Safety is stressed on every call and is highly implemented in the RVFDs trainings held each month.
Training Lieutenant Mike Richardson said that the group is constantly training to know what to do to take care of themselves, as well as the victims.
“With the current (heat) conditions, we are reminding the firemen to stay hydrated,” Richardson said. “I’ve also got teasers up around the station to remind them, ‘hey guys be sure to remember’ the signs of heat exhaustion.”
Funding
The department is allotted an operating budget of $68,000 by the City of Rockdale, which includes $20,000 that comes from the county. That money includes payment of utilities for the fire station on the corner of Bell and Wilcox, capital equipment, maintenance and insurance.
According to Rockdale VFD fire chief Warren “Dude” Matous, in addition to spending the budgeted money, the department also has to use approximately $40,000 of its own money to help with expenses, training, etc.
“…The demands on the department and the membership are many. But we are not just answering calls and training,” Matous said. “We are also very aggressively, modernizing and improving our knowledge and equipment. This, of course, requires other types of funding.”
Grants
A committee was formed in the RVFD to determine what the department needs to do to keep up with the growing community, according to Matous.
“The committee looked at the needs of the department on a five-year plan. Several items were discussed and we quickly determined that we had no way of funding our needs,” he said. “So we turned to the help of a professional grant writer to go after ‘Uncle Sam money’.”
As a result, the department is currently waiting to hear about the status of two government grants and one from the Alcoa Foundation. One government grant was an equipment grant for $124, 586 and the other a ladder truck grant for $533,380, for a total of $656, 966. Matous said the Alcoa Foundation grant is in the amount of $15,000 and would be used to help support training activities for the department.
“We have made it through three phases of the grant process and we feel like we have a good chance for at least one of the (government) grants, if not both,” he said. “If we receive the grants, we will be required to provide matching funds of $32,998. Thirty-two thousand for $656,000 sounds pretty good to me.”
Donations
Matous said that despite all that money, some of it may come, some not, the department still has to pay out of its own accounts for a lot of its equipment, training and operating costs.
Where does that money come from? Donations from the community, Matous said.
Some donations come in from folks who the RVFD help out during emergencies like fires, he said. Others come in via fund-raisers, like this weekend’s big “Smoke on the Water” event (see related story, page 1A).
The Rockdale VFD also has a large and very helpful Ladies Auxiliary that contributes to the department’s success.
“The Auxiliary help us out during fundraisers and provide rehabilitation support at fire scenes by bringing us out water,” Matous said.
Objective
Matous said that the objective of the RVFD is to help serve the community with the best training, personnel and equipment at little cost to the taxpayer that is equal than that of a full-time staffed department.
Remember, this group of residents volunteer their time and effort to help the community in need. They even go as far to put their lives on the line to save others.
So when you get a chance, support the RVFD and its Auxiliary, whether it be by going to a fundraiser or simply sending them a donation, and of course, your thanks.
