Oak Bowery Volunteer Fire Department is building their future now

BY JOHN BRICE

FOR THE LAFAYETTE SUN

CHAMBERS COUNTY — Ensuring the safety of fellow community members and the public at large is the sacred mission of the Oak Bowery Volunteer Fire Department, which operates in the southern portion of Chambers County. 

“For generations Oak Bowery Volunteer Fire Department has protected the families and neighbors of our community,” said Vice President Cindy Henderson. “Currently, we have the station No. 1, which people see on U.S. Highway 431. That is the original station. Over the past four to five years, we have really worked diligently to improve the amount of water we have for our residents. This has been by purchasing additional water tanks — some of it has been donated, some of it is through our members and some of it is through grants. We currently have 59,000 gallons of water available for our residents, which is pretty awesome.”

Henderson described how her department’s efforts are reducing the cost of homeowners insurance in their area.

“We have put another tank at the corner of 22 and 147,” Henderson said. “That area there is where we hope to have a future station. We are trying to build another station to house some of our apparatus. The first goal for our community is to improve the city’s ISO rating to a 5. What this does for our residents is it is going to lower their insurance. In the last year, we have been able to train and to move the amount of water we need to get that certification. We just recently within the past week have turned in all of our paperwork, so we are super close. They just have to come out, do a site visit and then we would be rated as a 5. That is something we are really proud of.”

Henderson also said she wants to upgrade some things within the department.

“The next thing that we want to do is make some improvements to our station on 431,” she said. “It has been there quite a while, and it has got some things that we need to do to it. Then, we want to move on to building a new station. We are actively fundraising for our Building for the Future Campaign. It is not something that we know is going to happen overnight.”

Engaging with the community to achieve these goals is a key aspect of success, according to Henderson. 

“One thing we are super excited about, back in April we did our first annual egg hunt, which was great,” she said. “The community really showed up and supported us. We plan to do that every spring. We have partnered with our people at Oak Bowery Methodist Church. They have been so kind to us. One of the ladies has joined our auxiliary group and has talked to the church there, and they are mentoring us to do our first annual barbecue. We have got it scheduled for Oct. 10. It will be a pork plate barbecue from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Oak Bowery Methodist Church. We are excited, it is going to be our fall fundraiser.”

Telling the story of her department through social media engagement is a task that Henderson has undertaken as well.

“We are trying to get it out there to the public and let people know what we do as a fire department,” Henderson said. “It is not just fires. It is motor vehicle accidents, it is medical calls. People don’t realize what volunteer fire departments do and how little funding they have to do it with. If people visit our Facebook, we are doing a series of stories right now called ‘Our People, Our Stories.’ Each one of those stories is just a little bit about one of our members, how they got involved and why they are passionate about our department. Some of the stories are about something that happened, touched them and got them involved.”

Henderson said the community her department serves is truly unique.

“One of the best ways to describe it is really just the people,” she said. “It is such a connected rural area. The community knows each other, and the neighbors look after each other. There is a sense of family here. There are a lot landowners in this community [where] the land was passed down to their children. [There] is a lot of years of history here, and I think that is what makes it so special.”