Forney Fire Department's Chief Rick Townsend spoke to the Forney Lions Club during their bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday night, August 13, 2013, at the Forney Fire Department.
Townsend spoke to the Lions Club in-depth about the Forney Fire Department. According to Townsend, the Forney Fire Department has been in service since the early 1900's and was an all volunteer department until 2001 when they hired their first paid firefighter. Today, the Forney Fire Department consist of 18 firefighters, three lieutenants, one captain, one fire marshal, one chief, and an operating budget of $1,921,239.
The department protects Forney, Talty, and parts of Kaufman County – nearly 80 square miles. Townsend said, “The fire district is essentially the school district boundaries.”
Seven firefighters are on duty each shift and each firefighter works a 24 hour shift and then gets 48 hours off. The Volunteer Fire Department includes 27 volunteer firefighters and has the capacity for 35 total volunteers.
In 2012, the Fire Department received 3,441 calls, 60% of which were medical calls. Townsend said the Fire Department also made contact with approximately 3,588 public education contacts. Public education contacts are people the Fire Department meets with to teach fire safety tips and they are usually students, their parents, and their teachers.
The Forney Fire Department has two pumper trucks, one 2,000 gallon tanker/pumper, one quint ladder truck with a 75-foot ladder, one light and air truck, one mini pumper truck, one brush truck, one rescue/medic truck, two ATVs, one 4x4 truck, three staff vehicles, and one 12k volt generator truck.
One Lions Club member asked what was the biggest fire the department has ever fought. Chief Townsend said it was probably the 2009 fire at Philbeck's Texas Pine Furniture and the Wortham Firearms Gun Shop on US Highway 80. That fire began in the early morning of July 29, 2009, took six hours to combat, and completely destroyed both buildings.