Upon arrival they found injured parties in both vehicles complaining of pain and they were transported to area hospitals. Crews were on the scene for approximately 20min.

The fire is believed to have started when a heat lamp came into contact with items in the garage and caught fire.

Crews arrived to find moderate smoke and fire inside the two story home.

The fire was under control in approximately 20 minutes, no one was injured but the home did sustain moderate to heavy smoke, fire and water damage.

Unfortunately during the incident, after much of the fire had been extinguished, the lead pump, 203, caught fire under the pump panel. Crews worked quickly to put out the small fire, but much of the wiring inside the truck was damaged.

The cause remains under investigation, but it’s believed to have started in the area of the chimney.

For the past several months a committee of five firefighters have been sifting through a stack of donation requests from around the country and the world. “We received somewhere around 25 or more”, said fire chief Roger Bennett. “Everywhere from Mexico, Arkansas to New Hampshire and Connecticut. There are a lot of departments in need” continued Bennett.

Before too long the committee narrowed it down to three Indiana departments and in the end Earl Park fire department in southwest Indiana won the donation.

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“Between the three finalist they seemed to be the most needy”, said committee member Bruce Shanabarger.

Currently the department doesn’t even have a truck to carry rescue equipment on, so they have to remove firefighting equipment from other trucks to make room.

“You have no idea how much this means to us” said Mark Jones a 4 year veteran of the department.

Just recently the area around Earl Park divided up their centralized rescue organization that is similar to an emergency management agency and dispersed equipment and trucks to local departments. “We ended up with a box truck that wouldn’t even fit in our station” said Tommy Bennett of Earl Park.

If handing over the truck wasn’t enough, they were given numerous water extinguishers, fire hose nozzles and other miscellaneous equipment to try and make their job a little easier.

We congratulate their department on receiving the gift and hope that it serves their community for many years to come!

Assistant Chief Wayne Krider arrived to find a large pole barn showing heavy smoke and some fire out of the east end of the structure and immediately requested assistance from LaOtto fire and soon thereafter Albion for manpower and water.

Crews found heavy smoke and heat inside the structure which was full of equipment and several dump trucks.

About an hour into the fire it was decided to bring up Columbia City Fire’s ladder 107 to assist with extinguishing the hot spots in the peak of the building.

Crews remained on the scene for several hours, no one was injured and the fire remains under investigation.

Ben Rinker was given the Firefighter of the Year award for his dedication to the department and it’s members. “Always willing to help out and be involved”, said firefighter Chris Tomlinson who presented Rinker with the award. Every week firefighters are asked to come down to the station and do maintenance on the trucks, clean the station and provide general housekeeping and Ben is always there willing to help out.

Tadd Shively received an Award of Heroism for saving the life of a woman from a burning mobile home in January of this year. Shively was the first firefighter to arrive on the scene and found heavy smoke coming from the mobile home and a woman still inside waiting for the fire department to show up. He acted quickly and safely in getting not only the woman but himself out of the mobile home before flames errupted from one of the rooms.

The department also elected their leadership for next year which is as follows:

• Fire Chief: Roger Bennett
• Asst. Chief: Wayne Krider
• Board of Directors: Darrell Resler
• Board of Directors: Chris Holloway
• Board of Directors: Ben Rinker
• Board of Directors: Kris Bair
• Board of Directors: Justin Snyder
• Board of Directors: Bruce Shanabarger
• Board of Directors: Ron Slagal

These two men and the entire department could use a round of applause, so feel free to do so below.

One female was transported to an area hospital complaining of pain. Firefighters remained on the scene for some time assisting with traffic direction on the busy highway.