04/19/2024
A little over two and a half years ago, our Fire Department approached Richard Brunk to ask him for his help. Our Fire Chief had just passed from COVID and our current Fire Chief had to handle both the fire side as well as the administrative side of our organization. Richard agreed to help us and as they say the rest is history. In the 2 ½ years that Richard has been helping with our department we have upgraded our entire fleet to include a brand new state of the art brush truck, that cost over $200,000, we have one of the biggest rescue trucks in the county that is fully equipped with state of the art rescue equipment, to include a set of both electric and hydraulic set of JAWS of Life. Every one of our members has a brand new set of protective clothing, we have brand new air packs and recently we were able to add on to our station and have it completely refurbished which includes bringing the entire fire station up to code electrically all of which was made possible through grants that were written and managed by Richard.
At our monthly meetings all of the members present review our monthly financial records for accuracy, and in the entire time Richard has been on the department there has not been one discrepancy found in our books. Richards’s efforts have saved our department and made it stronger than it has ever been in the 40 plus years we have been in existence. Two years ago three of our members were injured while fighting a fire and had to be life flighted to Houston; Richard stepped up and made sure all the family’s had a place to stay in Houston and money for food so they could be with their loved ones.
Richards generosity has not been limited to just our fire department, last year he wrote a grant for the City of Huntington Volunteer Fire Department which resulted in them receiving $100,000 to put towards a new fire truck and several years before that he wrote a grant for them which allowed them to purchase a rescue truck, he also wrote a grant for Fuller Springs Fire Department that allowed them to build that new fire station you see on Highway 69. It seems that every time Richard gets involved with something he leaves it better than he found it
When the park in Zavalla was vandalized Richard was very upset, our Fire Chief Eddie Sweet brought his spray painting equipment down there to help repair the damage to the bathroom. Richard did not ask our Chief to do this, our Chief chose to do it to show Richard how grateful we are for his hard work.
