FIRE DEPARTMENT HISTORY

 

Bossier Parish , Fire District # Two

Name of Department: South Bossier Volunteer Fire Department

Phone Number: 318-987-2555

Original Department

Date of Organization:   June 1985

 

Information on the Organization: The fire department was started by Leo Chadwick, Jimmy Rodgers, Jimmy Scott, Lucky Darrow, Billy Foster, and Joe Tabor and few others down at Rodgers Marina in early 1985.  Leo was a full time Captain with  Bossier City Fire Department at this time.  Board meeting were held at the American Legion on Hwy 527.  SBVFD went on line in Aug 1985.

 

Funding: Lots and lots of fun raisers were at Rodgers Marina and garage sales at various locations and received 10 -15 thousand dollars from the police jury the first four years, our annual budget was around 35 to 50 thousand dollars.  Later went out to the community for a 10 mil tax for Operating & Maintenance.

 

Parish Governing System:  Police Jury assigns five (5) members from the community to serve as board of commissioners.

 

Location, size: The Fire District is located south of Haughton and Bossier City to Loggy Bayou where Bossier, Red River, and Bienville Parishes join. The east side joins up with Webster Parish and the west side runs along the east side of the Red River south to Loggy Bayou for coverage area of approximate 145 square miles. SBVFD has five (5) stations located thought-out the fire district and central station located a quarter mile west on Hwy 527 of the intersection of Hwy 157 and Hwy 527.

Department  Beginning:

Departmental Rating: 10

 

Chief, Officers, Staff: Chief Leo Chadwick

                                    Station Captains, Paul Taylor, Ron Schindall, Jimmy Rodgers

                                    Firemen’s Representative, Jimmy Scott

 

Firefighters / EMS personnel:

            a.  Paid : 0

            b.  Volunteer : 40

 

Training: Most of our training was done at Elm Grove Middle School with little or no equipment to work with.

 

Training instructors where: Luther and Glenda Sharbono.

 

Stations: Station Two, having one bay, was up and running first located at Moon’s Air Conditioning, then came along Station One with three bay’s and a training room located on Hwy 527 just west of the intersection of Hwy 157 and Hwy 527, followed by Station Four, with two bays located at 2452 Sligo Rd, and Station Three, with two bays was built at Rodgers Marina.

 

Apparatus and Equipment: We started with two pumpers, a 1956 and 1952 Ford 500/500 gpm. An old army duce-and-half, with a converted gasoline tank served as a 1200 gallon tanker. Lots of home made tools like hose clamps, halligan tools, and many different size hose adapters, etc were used.  Our first portable tank was a homemade from heavy metal conduit frame and a vinyl cover made in Iowa, it only held 1000 gallons.

 

Response statistics:

            a.  Fire : unknown

            b.  EMS : we started ems in 1990

            c.  Other : unknown

 

Department Growth

Chief, Officers through the years:

Chief   Leo Chadwick           Jun 1985-Jan 1990

            John Murray               Jan 1990-Mar 1990

            Luther Sharabono     Mar 1990-Sept 1990

            Jack Waller                Sept 1990-Dec 1992

            Duxie Scott                Jan 1992-Apr 1993

            Jack Waller                Apr 1993-Dec 1994

            Duxie Scott                Jan 1994-Dec 1997

            Ron Golden                Jan 1997-Dec 2000

            Ron Schindall            Jan 1998-Dec 2000

            Ron Kingrey               Jan 2001-Dec 2001

            Ron Schindall            Jan-2002-Present

 

New Stations: In the mid to late 90’s Station Two, with two bays was later relocated at 1325 Robinson Road.  Central Station, five bays, with sleeping quarters and training grounds was rebuilt just west of the old station one on Hwy 527. Station Five with two bays is located at just south of the Hwy 71 and 527 intersections on Hwy 71 and then Station Six with two bays, the old Culligan Water building, located in the southern part of the fire district just north of Poole Road on Hwy 71.

 

Significant events or development within the department: In June 1987 the first volunteer to receive Firefighter One and Instructor One was Ron Schindall followed by Gary Panzer and John Murray in June 1991. We had four more FF-1 in 1997.

Firefighters that are state certified since 1999 to present.

FF-1                  FF-2                    HMO               HMT               DR/OP             FO-1    FO-2

24                    4                      8                      3                      8                      2          1

 

In 2004 we started a Fire Ranger Program for children of our members that are too young to join as Jr. Firefighters. In March 1994 Gary Panzer was the Fire District first full-time paid firefighter.

Property Insurance Association of Louisiana (PIAL) lowered our fire protection to a class nine around July 1986.  After demonstrating water hauling by pumping 700 gpm to PIAL we lower our fire rating to seven in 1993. Along with the purchases of new pumpers, tankers and service trucks and by demonstrating our water shuttle capabilities we lowered our rating to a class five by pumping 1000 gpm in 1998. In 2003 we re-certified our rating to maintain a class five by pumping 1300 gpm.

IN April 1990 we started our EMS service. (looking at old chief’s report)

In April 1990 first patch was designed by a student from elm grove and later in 2000 we upgraded our patch to what it is today.

Purchased our first new pumper (1000/1000) in July 1990.

On Feb 1, 2006 we started 24/7 coverage. The first paid fire chief is Ron Schindall and the first shift firefighters are Rodney Pilgrim, Brian Tidwell, and Kevin Jones. All four were sworn in at the board meeting in February 2006.

Present Department

Departmental Rating: Five (5)

 

District Size, Population, and Location: same, 6600 pop, same

Chief, Officers, Staff:

Chief Ron Schindall

Deputy Chief Gray Young

Chief of Operations Kenny Tyson

Chief of EMS Dawn Young

Safety Officers: Chris Fink, Denis Faulk

Station Captains: Liz Panzer, Rodney Pilgrim, Jimmy Rodgers, Brian Tidwell, Robert Chambers, Evan Dunn

 

Firefighters / EMS personnel:

            a.  Paid : Chief, three shift workers, two part-time firefighters, part-time secretary and treasurer

            b.  Volunteer : 40

 

Training: Our training bureau instructors consist of:

Fire Instructor II : Gray Young

Fire Instructor I : Brian Tidwell, Rodney Pilgrim, Dawn Young, Ron Schindall, Gary Panzer, John Murray , Chris Fink

EMS Instructor : Dawn Young, NREMT-Paramedic

Training ground with smoke building, search and rescue trailer, LP burn, ventilation roof, rappelling tower, eight thousand gallon oil tank, car burns, Denver rescue prop.

 

Stations: same six stations

 

Apparatus and Equipment:

Sta.                 Eng.                Tanker            Service Trk/Rescue              Grass                      Trk                   Boat

One                 1250/1250     1250/3000                 1                                    1                              1                         1

Two                 1250/3000                                         1

Three              1000/1000 (reserve eng)

                        1250/1250    

Four                1250/1250     1250/3000 (serves as a service trk also)

Five                 1250/1250     1250/3000

Six                   1250/3000

 

 

Response statistics: Fire and/or EMS:

            FOR YEAR 2005

            a.  Fire : 110

            b.  EMS :576

            c.  Other :174

 

Duties performed by the department: Firefighting, EMS, Rescue, Water Rescue, Dive Team, HazMat Training, Community Education