Dear friends,

Welcome to the Gerton Fire and Rescue’s Chief’s page. I hope to update this at least every other month; however some statistics may be longer in getting them out than other information. First to answer a question that keeps being asked by some members of our community. Here are the 2009

ANNUAL CALLS:

Fire Calls - 11

Rescue Calls - 5

Medical Calls - 16

Motor Vehicle Crashes - 4

Service Calls - 20

Mutual Aid Calls - 12

Total Calls 2009 - 68

We are excited to announce that while we still have over 20 firefighters who volunteer to our community, we have made a bold step to enhance the service we deliver to you. On February 1 of this year we were able to put on our first paid staff. We now have a firefighter stationed at our department Monday through Friday to not only answer calls but to help with the many task that are required to maintain our Class 6 rating that we obtained. We will be coming up for renewal in the next couple of years and this will help with making that renewal process less strenuous and stressful for all of our firefighters. All of our paid staff are NC certified Firefighter II and NC Emergency Medical Technicians.

They are all certified in Rescue and maintain multiple other certifications. Please feel free to stop by and talk to them.

Just to give you an update on our department. We received a FEMA grant last year that replaced all of our hoses and nozzles on all of our trucks. We recently purchased a used pumper tanker from Troyonata fire department in Bessemer City to replace our worn out tanker. With this addition we have increased our pumping capabilities by another 1000 GPM. Just as an update this is a list of the equipment we have to respond to you.

Engine 22 – 1250GPM, 1000 gallons,

Engine 22-2 – 1000 GPM, 1000 gallons,

Engine 22-3 – 1000 GPM 1000 gallons,

Squad 22 – 500 GPM mini pumper,

Truck 22 – 4 wheel drive brush truck, Rescue 22-5 – a Heavy Rescue Truck with light towers, rescue tools and cascade system for breathing air. This truck has an assortment of rescue tools from high angle to water rescue.

Medic 22 – a 4 wheel drive certified ambulance.

We also have Command 22 – a 4 wheel drive command truck for use in operations

ATV 22 – a 4 wheel drive all terrain vehicle used for rescue.

As you can see we have good equipment and a wide range of it to deal with almost any type of incident.

Our firefighters are some of the best trained in the state. All of them are certified in NIMS, Haz-mat and are working to obtain their NC firefighter II and Rescue Technician. We have 9 NC Firefighter IIs and 15 Emergency Medical Technicians. We also have 8 Rescue Technicians with many of those with specialty rescue certifications. I can only say that I am so proud of each and every one of our firefighters. They give up their personal time to volunteer to respond to you in your time of need. These firefighters gave over 2000 hours of training in 2009 and none of them were compensated for any of that. Please take the time when you see of them to thank them for what they do.

Next time we I will offer some more information about our district. Any time that you feel you would like to more about us, please free to contact us at the station and schedule a time to come by and meet.

We welcome all of our residents and look forward to serving you in the coming year. Also we meet every Monday night at 1900 (7pm).  Please come by and visit. Also, you can e-mail us off this website. Until next time, please be safe and do not ever hesitate to contact us.