Lugoff Fire Department (LFD) Fire Chief Dennis Ray has written and received three grants that will benefit his fire department. The biggest one, with a $980,000 price tag, is a communications grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, the money will be divided throughout Kershaw county to upgrade emergency communication systems and devices up to Federal Communication Commission (FCC) mandates. The Assistance to Fire Fighters Grant is part of a regional communications project.

The second grant was awarded through the S.C. Forestry Commission to train volunteer firefighters and will provide $3600 in matching funds to LFD. The third grant, worth $2400, is from International Paper Co. Foundation (Eastover Mill) and will go towards immediately upgrading radios in LFD fire engines.

In other business

• The Lugoff Fire District Board of Commissioners welcomed Anna Stewart as the newest commissioner on the board during the January meeting.

• Ken Truesdale was nominated as the chairman of the board for the second year. Trace DeBrul was named vice-chair and David Hines was named treasurer.

• Ray reported the back-up 911 call system is “well on its way.” At the meeting, Ray reported that everything looked good and was “on schedule” to be installed on time.

• Ray also asked the board about looking into changing response protocol for vehicle collisions.
“There are a lot of car crashes that we are needed, but in the case of a small parking lot bump-up or minor accidents, we may be putting more people in danger by dispatching the fire trucks,” Ray said.
Ray also explained that the fire trucks block more traffic in some cases than the wreck itself.
“I just want to look into our protocol for nonessential wreck response,” he added.

• Ray updated the  board on 2010 response/call numbers. They are as follows:
LFD responded to 591 calls. Of those, 125 were fires and 28 were structural fires. LFD responded to 219 rescue calls/wrecks, received mutual aid 31 times and gave mutual aid 51 times.
“The firefighters really did an outstanding job last year,” Ray said.