Fire department gets dozer

Bullard Fire Chief inspects the dozer recently acquired from the Texas Forest Service.

The delivery -- it turns out -- was just in time.

The day after Bullard Fire Cheif picked up the department's dozer, it was put to work.

About 4:30 p.m. on March 6, the Bullard Voluneer Fire Department was called out on a fire about 1/2 miles north of Bullard Veterinary Clinic.

The dozer, newly acquired by the department, was vital in responding, Newburn said.

"Without the dozer it probably would have taken about 2 or three hours," Newburn said. As it was, the 1 1/2 acre blaze was contained in about 35-40 minutes.

The department received the new firefighting tool, through a program known as House Bill 680, better known to Volunteer Fire Departments as the "VFD Helping Hands Program."

This program allows the Texas Forest Service to place very valuable fire and safety equipment in the hands of fire departments across the state without having to assume the liablity of its operation.

Bullard VFD has obtained a tractor-plow and transport unit to aide in fighting fires. The truck and tractor combination formerly belonged to the Texas Forest Service and was very well maintained.

This equipment agreement has been eight years in the making, Newburn said.

"It has taken that long to get all of the details ironed out," he said. "We have been training personnel in the latest operation techniques and firefighting skills and the Forest Service has had to search their system in order to find just the right units to put into this project."

Because technology has gotten so expensive over the past several years, the Forest Service has had to reduce the quantity of these truck-tractor units, which are scattered across the state. This makes them harder to get when they are needed.

"The units that Bullard has received will greatly help fight rural fires not only right here in Bullard but across East Texas," Newburn said. "We will respond in assistance wherever asked across the area because of the scarcity of these type resources."