Darrell and Travis Baughn and Dan Rider sort through equipment and go through old pictures in the current Allen County Rural District No. 2 Volunteer Fire Department, which sits on the outskirts of Iola. For 16 years, RV Park and Storage west of Iola has served as their station. That will all come to an end soon, though, with the decision by Allen County Commissioners for the department to have its very own fire station.
Darrell Baughn has been with the department since 1981 and serves as the Fire Chief. He has seen a lot during his time with the station.
We have saved quite a bit since then. I remember one Christmas we were called to a house and I was thinking it was probably just a party, but we were able to save that house. We were squirting water on it, and after the people got all their stuff out, they looked at us and said, let it burn, let it burn, Darrell Baughn said. I was like, no. We have got to put it out.
During the flood of 2007, Baughns house served as the fire station, as floodwaters rose to 2-feet high inside the storage building.
County crews have already done the dirt work and laid the pad at the site of the new station north of Iola. Waverly Construction is set to begin construction in late August.
Darrells son Travis serves as the Assistant Fire Chief.
The 12-member crew serves a 55-square-mile area, but if help is needed elsewhere they will take the call. Other department members are Luke Chenoweth, Jerred Findley, John Hutton, Terry Johnson, Matthew Komma, Drew Roush, Randy Slocum and Jason Trego.
Basically, if the tones go off, we are on the road, no questions asked, Rider said.
Rider has served on volunteer fire departments since 1983.
Darrell Baughn said they were able to recruit more volunteers once the department moved to the storage facility on Highway 54.
We started to get more people joining and more people wanting to do it, Baughn said. If it werent for these two guys here, I probably would already be out, because it would have all fallen back on me. I just cant do like I used to. Anytime I even joke about leaving, they tell me they will stick me in a wheelchair and push me to the fire.
The department makes the most of the donations it receives. The fire trucks were put together by the team itself.
Like this truck here. We spent a couple of months planning before we ever even touched a wrench, Rider said. This truck will usually be the first to arrive on the scene. A lot of the fires we respond to are a hay bale that is on fire. And before you can get a farmer with a bale spear to move the other bales, they are already on fire. So when we built this truck, we put a hidden bale spear on the back end. All new trucks look good on paper, but when you get out there to fight a fire there is no cookie cutter piece of equipment that will work for every department.
Travis Baughn added that No department is the same. No fire truck is built the same. You may have cities that never go into a rural area to fight fires, or you may have departments that only serve rural areas. Ours are user-friendly for us. We built them, we know whats on them and if there is a problem, it is easy to trace.
Much of the gear they have they received through grants. They are set to receive wireless headset radios in the near future, which will help them even more.
