The Black Eagle Volunteer Fire Department is in the process of constructing a new building which will provide them with more space for equipment and training, allowing them to better serve the community.
The current building, which hasn’t been updated for 70 years, is housing five trucks in three stalls, leaving little to no room for training purposes, and some equipment is often kept outside.
Another advantage of the new building is its more central location, allowing for a faster route to an emergency; it is being built along Wire Mill Road, just north of Smelter Avenue NE and to the west of 15th Street North.
Graydon Irish, a Lieutenant at the Black Eagle Volunteer Fire Department, says, “We not only service the township of Black Eagle, but we cover all the way over to Stuckey Road, and then to the river, and then north of town to the county line. So it's kind of centrally located with access to get in and out to all areas of our jurisdiction quickly.”
The exterior of the building is up, but it will still be around a year and a half until it will be ready for the department to move in.
The building was funded partially through donations and years of budgeting and saving by the department.
Irish explains, “We still have to try and keep an operating budget, but keep money to the side to build the station. So we run into issues of trucks breaking down, needing equipment, and having to kind of pinch pennies when it comes to that to save as much as we can to build a station that will actually house our equipment.”
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Chris Lee, a Lieutenant at the Black Eagle Volunteer Fire Department, says he is most looking forward to the new space allowing for bigger, better equipment.
Lee says, “It's going to allow for bigger apparatus, a better apparatus, to better serve the community. Our current station is pretty small, we can only house a certain sized apparatus, especially with water tenders. So that will be a pretty key factor for this big building”.
If you would like to donate to the Black Eagle volunteer fire department for the new building, you can call and leave a message with the department at 406-452-7883, or send a donation to BEVFD, P.O. Box 533, Black Eagle, Montana, 59414.
