Firefighters Say Damaged Trucks May Cost $20,000
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BIG SANDY, Tenn. — At first glance the Big Sandy fire trucks appear to be fine, but fire chief Larry Waters says repairing the roofs of three of his four trucks will cost $20,000. “It’s an empty feeling because so many people have put so much into this small town fire department over the last forty years,” Waters said. According to Waters, they were damaged after five inches of ice caused the roof of the building to cave after last Monday’s winter storm. The trucks are now housed at M&M construction and a city workshop. “That’s the way things work in the real world,” Big Sandy resident Robert Barrett said, “Things go wrong and when they go wrong you have to fix the problem and start over again.” Waters says the trucks are still operational but his volunteer firefighters no longer have a building to work from. He says 80 percent of the building was damaged. They want to build a new one in the next eight months either in the same spot or across the street. “Next time use a little bit better trusses when you build a roof over a building, something that’ll hold up more weight,” Barrett said. But Waters assured residents even without a building, they’re ready to respond and have the back up of other local stations as well. It’ll still be at least two weeks before the department gets an estimate on rebuilding a new station. Chief Waters says insurance will cover a bulk of the costs.
