Fire dept. gets big donation

The Gaffney Fire Department on Thursday took delivery of a very big donation.

NextEra Energy, the operator of a co-generation plant in Gaffney, gave the city fire department an equipment trailer valued at $8,000 to haul all of the department's specialized gear used for extracting victims from difficult situations, such as confined spaces, trenches and collapses.

The red-colored trailer already is adorned with the Gaffney Fire Department logo and its motto "Pride Tradition and Spirit."

NextEra Energy spokesman Lindsey Hunt said the company volunteered to donate the trailer after discussions with the city fire department following confined space training exercises held at the co-generation plant earlier this year.

"When we call 9-1-1 we expect them (the firefighters) to jump in a truck and provide the services we need," said Billy Pruitt, site leader at the local plant.

NextEra Energy was glad to lend assistance, Hunt said, when it saw the local department had a need of its own.

"This literally impacts the community," Hunt said, since the equipment can benefit all of Cherokee County.

Fire Chief Nathan Ellis said the department had obtained many pieces of technical rescue equipment through a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant but had no centralized place to store it and no one way to haul it. The equipment was carried on several of the department's vehicles.

"We quickly realized having all of the equipment in one place would be a great benefit," he said.

Ellis said the department is very happy with the donation. "It's going to be a great asset for us and make responding with that equipment much more efficient," he said.

The NextEra Emergency co-generation plant is a natural gas plant that provides 95 percent of the energy it makes to the Duke Energy power grid. The remaining 5 percent is used to produce ice at Ready Ice.