According to Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services, about 78% of Texas’ firefighters are volunteers. With so many Texas communities relying on volunteer departments and firefighters within combination departments (which have both career and volunteer firefighters), the difficulties they can often face with having adequate equipment, communication systems and other needs can dramatically impact the communities they serve. For this reason, the Quinlan Volunteer Fire Department was pleased when they acquired a used Humvee in June to use as their new command vehicle.
However, the department still had to repaint the vehicle and install it with lights, a siren and other equipment ...
and they also had to do it on a tight budget. Eventually, the department worked out an agreement with Greenville High School’s automotive paint and body shop instructor Matt Germain, whose students jumped at the chance to work on such a special project. Fast-forward to Wednesday this week, and the students’ work on the Humvee was complete and the vehicle was ready to go into service.
“We agreed to do it because I knew that the students were capable to do the work within the time limit,” Germain said at a commissioning ceremony for the vehicle at Greenville High School on Wednesday. “We were originally only going to paint it, but the students installed the lights, did the graphics and everything else it needed to be ready for service.” In total, Greenville High School’s auto body shop.