PRESS RELEASE
On April 7, the Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Company signed a contract to purchase a new engine to replace its 1995 one.
At the signing it knew the deliver time for the new truck would be approximately three years. The intention was to keep the 1995 engine in reserve until the new truck was close to delivery.
That was the plan until Rehoboth Beach learned that a volunteer fire company in Preston, Missouri had lost its main response engine due to an accident.
The Village of Preston, Missouri, population 157, is in a rural farming and cattle ranch area located in Hickory County, in central Missouri. The Preston Volunteer Fire Department has been serving its community for more than 38 years. It is a rural, hard-pressed, volunteer fire company. It has two other used fire trucks acquired over the years. One is a tanker and the other is a 4-wheel-drive field fire pick-up it acquired from the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company.
When Rehoboth’s Fire Chief, Chuck Snyder, heard of Preston’s plight he contacted Preston’s Fire Chief, Brian Bennett, to offer the Rehoboth engine to them. He sent them pictures and specifications. At the May 3 Rehoboth Fire Company meeting, the fire company members voted unanimously to send the Rehoboth truck to Preston.
It also voted to add some excess firefighting equipment to the truck for Preston to use. When contacted with the news, the Preston Fire chief and some of his members left Missouri and drove to Rehoboth Beach.
On May 6, Engine 86-4 left Rehoboth Beach and headed for its new home in Preston, Missouri. There is a fire service slogan coined many years ago, which is, “Neighbor helping neighbor.” In this case to quote Chief Snyder, “This is one volunteer fire company helping another in their time a need. We are proud to help the Preston Volunteer Fire Company.”
