By Courtney D. Clark
The Coal City Volunteer Fire Department resumed operations Friday after a temporary shutdown ordered earlier this month was lifted, State Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis said.
Lewis met with the new Coal City Fire Chief Rodger Bell and the department’s board of directors Thursday evening.
“I was pleased to see that they had met all of the stipulations I set forth for them to meet before opening back up the department,” Lewis said. “They did it in a much shorter time frame than I had allotted for them. I gave them 90 days, and they met all of the requirements in less than a month.”
“It took a lot of work,” Bell said. “Since Sept. 2, I’ve been here from 4 a.m. to as late as 6 p.m. every day except Sunday. We had to contact some banks, get our liability insurance back in place and deal with a lot of issues to get a business that was spending more than it brought in back up and running. Our gas and telephones were turned off, and they were getting ready to sell the building. It was one catastrophe after another.”
The fire department was given until December to regain its workers’ compensation coverage for the firefighters and work with a lien holder on the property.
“There was a threat that the property would be sold,” Lewis said, “but that is not the case now. Chief Bell has worked with the lien holder, and the department can retain their building as long as they keep up the payments.
“They met all requirements of the legislative auditor, and the state funds that all West Virginia fire departments receive have been released to them.”
Lewis added, “They had not been able to get that money prior to now, so that was a shot in the arm for them financially.”
The Beaver, Ghent, Rhodell and Sophia Area fire departments had been covering calls for the Coal City department since Sept. 2.
Raleigh County Emergency Services Director Jack Bowden said a letter signed by Lewis authorizing Coal City’s reinstatement was delivered to him Friday by Bell. Bowden said the Emergency Operations Center then resumed dispatching Coal City firefighters in their designated coverage areas.
“Jack Bowden received the letter and congratulated us for going back online,” the chief said. “We are back in service, and I think we’ll be good to go from now on. We have had so much support from the community, including donations to keep us in service. I can’t thank them enough.”
“They did such a great job,” Lewis added. “Chief Bell and the board of directors, combined with the support of the community, accomplished something I honestly didn’t think they would be able to accomplish. I am proud of the department itself, and the community getting behind them, to help get them back to where they needed to be.”
— E-mail: cclark@register-herald.com
