From left, are Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Board Member Brandon Schmitt and Warsaw City Council Representative Mike Klondaris. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Shepherd.

By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Board approved the replacement of EMS Chief Chris Fancil’s duty vehicle during a meeting on Tuesday, July 6.

According to WWFT Chief Mike Wilson, the replacement would be a 2020 Dodge Durango. WWFT would purchase the vehicle from John Jones Auto Group in Salem for $36,533. The territory’s current EMS chief vehicle will remain in the fleet and be repurposed as a Community Cares response vehicle.

WWFT’s board approved the purchase; the vehicle proposal will go to the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety Meeting for approval on Monday, July 19.

The board also approved several travel requests for firefighters. Three WWFT firefighters will be traveling to Elkhart on July 24 for dive training to receive open water scuba certification. Two firefighters will also be traveling to Kansas from July 26-29 for sonar training in order to become more proficient in using sonar to locate victims in bodies of water.

During the meeting, WWFT’s board learned from Assistant Chief Aaron Bolinger that the rope and confined space rescue team for the city has now moved from Station 1 to Station 2.

“The rescue downtown is dedicated to dive… just to help ease their burden,” said Bolinger.

“It was a good move,” said Wilson about the operational change. “It saved dollars and made more use of that (rescue) vehicle.”

WWFT’s board also asked Bolinger about fireworks-related calls over the Independence Day weekend. Bolinger said the Speed Rocket Fireworks store fire on July 4 was the only fireworks-related incident WWFT responded to.

For the month of May, WWFT responded to structure fires involving $2 million worth of property. A home at 1813 Hepler Drive in Warsaw was deemed a total loss. The fire territory also assisted other agencies with six incidents outside of the territory, three of which involved assisting Plain Township Fire Department.

The board’s next meeting is at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3.