Buffs Conduct Fund Drive To Purchase Rescue Tool
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Staff Correspondent
How organized buffs can support the fire service in a smaller community was demonstrated recently in Brookfield, Wis. At an October 25 dinner meeting with other area buffs, Treasurer Glen Locher and President Carl Bohman of the Brookfield Fire Associates formally presented Chief Ed Schweitzer with a $7400 set of Hurst Tool equipment purchased by the Fire Associates after a citywide fund drive begun several months earlier. Training with the new tools by 42 fire fighters was scheduled to commence the following week.
Despite its 40,000 population, Brookfield remains largely rural. The city covers 30 square miles. Major fires are rare. But the potential for major rescue emergencies is great. Within city limits are 4 miles of heavily traveled interstate expressway, 7 miles of state highways, and 6 miles of main railroad line. Brookfield contains Waukesha County’s largest suburban shopping center, estimated to cause movement of as many as 25,000 persons daily on nearby streets.
A year ago, when Fire Lieutenant Jim Mehring was appointed liaison officer to the 23-member Fire Associates group, he decided to explore with them the possibility of obtaining the Hurst “Jaws of Life” for the city—whose budget has been tight in recent years. A demonstration was arranged. In May 1979, the buff club agreed to tackle the project.
Locher explains what happened next: “A couple of members began contacting banks and savings institutions. Others made presentations to service clubs and industry. We put collection containers in stores, barber shops, offices, gas stations—wherever people gathered.”
In response to the slogan, “Citizens of Brookfield—Your Help Is Needed,” donations from groups and individuals during the summer neared the $1000 minimum needed for a down payment on the tool. One manufacturing company gave $500; a savings and loan firm $200. Locher set up a special savings account titled “Brookfield Jaws of Life Fund.”
“We were still a little short,” said Mehring, “when one day there was a bad accident here with a girl pinned in wreckage for 45 minutes because we didn’t have the right equipment to get her out quickly. It took time for mutual aid to arrive and get set up. The girl died. Next day, when we got together with the buffs, they decided to place the order right then.”
The Associates spent $226 for 10,000 one-page flyers explaining the tool need and its uses, with the reminder, “Remember: you won’t get out by accident.” After Mehring got approval from the local school board, these flyers were distributed in all grammar schools. Children brought in pennies, while their families sent dollars.
By the time the tool was presented to the city a total of $6443 had been collected. Service clubs were large supporters, amounts from $500 to $2000 being received or expected from Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary groups. Most of the work was then being done by Locher, who for the preceding six weeks had been out soliciting personally or by phone almost daily.
The Hurst Model 32a was selected to match similar equipment already in use by six neighboring communities, so that mutual aid throughout the area would benefit from common training and operating practice.
The Fire Associates had planned to turn over to the fire department, for future tool maintenance and repair needs, any money remaining in the Jaws fund after final payment. However, Mehring has already begun talking about possible purchase of air lifting bags to supplement the new rescue gear. So Bohman, Locher, and the other buffs may have more work ahead of them.
Meanwhile, they are keeping busy. All members and their wives have taken a basic CPR course. Five of them have now completed an advanced course, and are working in the community as instructors. In recognition of that, Brookfield’s Emergency Medical Program officials awarded the club a “Certificate of Concern.” Read and displayed at the same meeting where the Hurst Tool was turned over to Schweitzer, the certificate will be framed for display at Fire Headquarters.
