By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Many of us do not recognize how many government services we have. For instance, when motorists are driving down Interstate 16 toward Savannah, south of Macon you see a sign for the town of Allentown. Motorists along about a 20-mile section of this interstate are under the protection of the Allentown Volunteer Fire Department. The department often makes emergency runs — about 16 percent of its calls — for accidents or auto fires on the Interstate.
During the last six months, the 16 volunteers of the Allentown Fire Department answered 127 calls, ranging from house fires to extricating people from automobiles after accidents. The department last week answered one call where a person from Oxford, Ga., burned to death in a wreck on the Interstate.
All this, mind you, from a city of only about 200 residents. Though the city has a post office, there is no rural delivery. Its annual budget is about $125,000.
One volunteer mans the fire station during the day, though all available respond to calls. Those working at the station get paid $100 a day. Three of its volunteers are emergency medical technicians.
The volunteers have a fleet of four vehicles worth close to $1 million to make these calls. Most of the funds for the rolling stock comes through governmental grants, as the department serves a 20-mile radius. Allentown is uniquely located geographically where four county corners of Georgia come together: Wilkinson, Twiggs, Bleckley and Laurens. Firefighters from these counties often help each other with emergency calls.
The Allentown equipment includes four diesel units:
- A F-650 Ford rescue truck, used on most calls. It stores 300 gallons of water, enough to spray on a fire until another truck can get there.
- A 3,000 gallon Kenworth tanker, obtained from Fouts Brothers of Atlanta.
- A Cummings 75-foot ladder truck with custom cab from E-1 of Ocala, Fla., used for structure fires, with 500 gallons a minute pump. The $650,000 truck was obtained through a regional grant for the four counties that the volunteers serve.
- The latest addition, a Freightliner 1,000 gallon pumper made by E-1 of Ocala.
Motorists traveling Intestate 16 near Allentown, seemingly in the “middle of nowhere,” are often surprised to see three fire trucks and eight firefighters responding to their emergency. It’s a government service few are aware of….until you are in an accident.
Steven Brack
ON JULY 18, there will be a ceremony honoring a fallen Allentown firefighter, Steven Brack. He’s the son of my first cousin, Charles.
The Georgia Highway 112 bridge at the Allentown exit over Interstate 16 will be named in his memory on that date. He died at age 36 less than a mile from the bridge on Oct. 11, 2004, when responding to a call on the Interstate, as he hydroplaned on a rain-slicked road.
Steve was born in Atlanta at Emory Hospital on April 9, 1968. He was raised in Buford, before his family moved to Sugar Hill when he was 11. He is a graduate of North Gwinnett High School, where he excelled at wrestling. At Middle Georgia College in Cochran, he met his future wife, Jill Dykes of Cochran. His name is listed in the Fallen Firefighter Memorial of Georgia in Forsyth and the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial, in Emmitsburg, Md. His family is active in the national fallen firefighter organization and regularly attends meetings.
The Allentown city commission passed a resolution to ask the state to name the bridge in honor one of their former residents.
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