In Pennsylvania, a Safe Community grant from Enbridge helps equip Jackson Township VFC’s new brush truck
It was November, and a winter storm had deposited a foot of snow atop the rolling hills of Jackson Township in west-central Pennsylvania, about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh.
In anticipation of the wintry weather, an older woman had had the furnace of her mountaintop home cleaned. But a few hours later, the flue malfunctioned, the furnace began smoldering and the house filled with smoke.
The woman called 9-1-1 and got extremely lucky—just two weeks before the incident, the Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Company had added a new truck to its fleet, one that could barrel up the unplowed mountain roads and down the woman’s long snowy driveway to put out the fire.
Had the furnace repair happened two weeks earlier, the outcome might have been disastrous.
“It’s the only truck we have that was able to make it close to the house,” recalls Stephen Yarina, president of Jackson Township VFC. “With it, we can be ready for pretty much any type of emergency, anywhere.”
The brush truck is a vital piece of equipment in Jackson Township. Winter brings deep blankets of snow in the hilly region, some years piling up from September to May, followed by hot, dry summers that put the landscape at risk of brush fires. Yarina anticipates the company of 60 volunteer firefighters will be using the truck regularly to reach remote and rugged areas.
“Within the first week, we used it several times,” he adds, noting the company responds to about 1,000 calls a year in the community of 4,300.
The new truck is a replacement for an old workhorse that was more than 50 years old and had far exceeded its useful life. But buying the vehicle was only the first step.
When Enbridge learned the firefighters had to raise funds to equip their new truck, we stepped in with a $5,000 Safe Community First Responder Program grant to help them purchase an attack hose and two nozzles. Once properly outfitted, the truck entered service in November 2025.
A grant from Enbridge’s Safe Community First Responder Program helped equip Jackson Township VFC’s new brush truck with an attack hose and a pair of nozzles.
Our Safe Community First Responder Program was developed for exactly this scenario—providing grants to emergency response organizations near our rights-of-way for vital equipment, professional training, or safety education programs.
“Around 85% of the fire departments in (the U.S.) are volunteer. Many do not get a lot of funding from their municipality or county,” Yarina explains. “Grants like this are very important because they help when you’ve exhausted all your fundraising opportunities or potentials.”
Fire equipment is expensive, he adds. Hose can cost $200 to $500 for each section, while nozzles are between $600 and $1,000 each.
Yarina is thankful the brush truck immediately improved the company’s ability to respond to emergencies: “This vehicle has the appropriate hose and equipment that will allow us to handle multiple situations and keep people safe.”
