May 20, 2017, is a date that no one in the town of Forest will ever forget, especially members of the Forest Volunteer Fire Department.
Around 8:45 p.m. that evening, an EF-1 tornado destroyed the fire station. The tornado blew one side of the station completely off and the remainder of the structure was compromised by winds. Ironically, the fire station was the only building damaged that evening in the community.
With no fire station, it left the volunteer department is disarray.
Fast forward to Saturday when the town held an open house at the new Forest Township Volunteer Fire Station.
Forest Township Trustee Brenda Robinson opened the event by saying, “August 19, 1954, is an important date for the Forest Fire Department, it was their inception date. This means that soon Forest Township will have had a fire department for 65 years. As with any organization, it takes a group of dedicated people to keep it thriving. Through the decades, we have had that group of dedicated people. That is as evident today as it was 65 years ago.”
Forest Volunteer Fire Department Chief Stace Alter talked about the tough times before the new building.
“It was very frustrating,” said Alter. “Like I said in the presentation, you just don’t know what it’s like until you have to experience it. When you’re trying to operate out of something that is not set up to operate out of the way we need to it just makes it more frustrating.”
What the department was operating out of was a pole barn generously donated by Conrad Coleman and his family. It gave the department a home base for almost two years.
Finally some good news came when the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) awarded the station a grant for $500,000. With that grant, along with assistance from Corner Stone Grants Management, Schmidt Associates and Monroe Custom Homes, a new fire station was erected next to the park in Forest. The department moved into the new facilities on March 20.
“Before, basically the station was just a truck bay,” said Alter. “It was just big enough for our apparatus. Now, we have an official meeting room, training room, a kitchenette for fundraisers plus the bathrooms.”
Alter said this effort shows how much this building means to the town.
“This is just a tremendous accomplishment for not just the fire department, but the whole community,” said Alter.
Another special moment in the presentation came when assistant fire chief and senior member of the department Mike Tate was awarded a plaque for his 40 years of service in the department.