Jacksonville, Ore.- After a fire burned down a home on Sunday, Jacksonville’s fire chief is hoping to expand his department but the city council denied the request.
Following the fire yesterday, some residents say the fire shows exactly why the proposal should expand the Jacksonville Fire Department should be considered and other residents say the fire department’s quick response shows why the department is key to keeping the town safe.
After the fire torched the home along the 500 block of Grove Street the stairs are covered in ash, the walls are completely charred, and the interior of the house gone.
Just down the street from the fire are Jerre and Barbara Hewitt. On Sunday night they were asleep when suddenly their neighborhood lit up.
Jerre and Barbara initially thought all of the light and noise was coming from their neighbors directly next door, because they say they’ve been remodeling lately. But then the Hewitt’s peeked outside and saw the house across the street in flames.
Concerned they would have to evacuate, they got prepared to leave.
“We have a little bit of gasoline. A generator. A lot of water,” Jerre Hewitt says.
That didn’t happen because the nearly 20 firefighters on scene got a handle on the flames before they spread to the nearby homes and trees. Since it didn’t spread, Jerre Hewitt wanted to share his thanks.
“I went down to the fire department and I just wanted to let them know, ‘I sure thank you for the excellent job you did,” Jerre explains.
The Hewitt’s praise for the Jacksonville Fire Department goes far beyond Sunday’s fire. They’ve come to help the Hewitt’s personally.
Jerre Hewitt says, “I just asked, ‘Would you come up and put a new battery in our smoke alarm?’ Oh sure! So they come chugging along up here in their big machine.”
Both of the Hewitt’s say that they they hope to see Jacksonville Fire expand in the future.
“They’re doing an excellent job. We’re very grateful for their work,” Barbara Hewitt says.
It’s a hope shared by the department’s Fire Chief.
Currently, Jacksonville Fire has only seven people on staff with only two working each shift.
The department had to call in extra help from other agencies Sunday. The chief recently asked the city council to approve a land sale to build a new station but it was denied.
Still, both the department and the Hewitt’s, have hopes the department can grow in the future.
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