ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition currently is building a new home for volunteer firefighter Mizzy Zdroj, who lost her home in the massive Bastrop Fire in September, as well as improving one of her fire department's stations.
The Bastrop Fire consumed more than 34,000 acres in Texas and destroyed more than 1,300 homes — including those of 14 out of the Heart of Pine Volunteer Fire Department's 22 members. Firefighters saved their station by burning a protective line in the grass that stopped the approaching flames. Heart of Pines Fire Chief Nathan Decker wondered if the fires would wipe out his volunteers, who didn’t have a place to live much less time to continue helping others or oversee fundraisers required to raise money for the department’s equipment needs.
Then, about a week ago, Decker got the surprise of his life. Not only was one of his displaced firefighters going to be built a new home, but the firehouse also would be renovated.
“The Zdroj family’s home burned to the ground and since this was their primary response station, Extreme Makeover decided to do the station also,” he said.
Decker said the Heart of Pines fire station consists of two bays with a small conference/kitchen area, bathrooms and a small storage closet. The building is 30 years old with warped wood paneling and a drop ceiling that is “crumbling in,” he said, noting that the lighting in the bay also was inadequate and most of their equipment was second-hand — often donated by surrounding departments.
Now, renovation is underway. A new bay has been added, insulation of the station was reinforced and the new entry façade has been started, Decker said. The lead builder on this project is Meyerson Custom Builders of Smithville, Texas.
“The inside of the building has been gutted and a new bay added,” he said. “We were trying to come up with the funds to build a new bay for quite awhile, but never seemed to be able to get ahead enough to do that, so this is a great thing.”
In addition, communication equipment at the department was outdated. The Austin/Travis County recently received a grant to upgrade a countywide system to 800 MHz but the department couldn’t afford to arm each firefighter with a radio.
As part of the firehouse upgrade by Extreme Makeover, Motorola Solutions donated 22 APX 7000XE radios, batteries and chargers, XE remote speaker mics, and programming services totaling approximately $183,100. The APX 7000XE is a multiband radio that operates in 700 MHz, 800 MHz and VHF bands.
“It is our high-tier, top-of-the-line radio that was specially designed for the fire service,” said Rick Russek, Motorola Solutions’ government sales manager.
APX radios have large ergonomic knobs that can be used with gloved-hands and come equipped with fireground noise-suppression software to enable firefighters in a high-noise environment to communicate, among other features, Russek said. Since the radios are multiband, the department now will be able to communicate directly with fire departments in surrounding areas.
“They’ve never had that luxury before,” he said. “The Austin/Travis County Regional Radio System is the primary means of communications for all fire departments in that area. But most of the smaller volunteers can’t afford to get on that radio system and have that direct communication with all of their backup and mutual-aid partners. So that’s another big plus for the Heart of Pines Fire Department.”
In fact, it would have taken “two or three fish fries to get one of these radios,” Decker said. “There would have been no way we could have done it.”
In the past, the chief had to beg and plead for hand-me-down or free radios from surrounding departments. Having new radios takes a burden off the back of the chief, as lack of reliable communications can result in confusion and firefighter injury.
“The last two or three weeks before I was surprised I was trying to get radios from other departments in the county that had extra radios they could give to use,” he said. “It’s one of those things as a volunteer fire department you have to do a lot of begging and bargaining just to get equipment you need. It is a big burden taken off my shoulders knowing my [firefighters] are actually going to be able to communicate with each other. It’s a huge bonus to this department.”
The department also received a donation from GearGrid, which provided several storage products, including nine, three-pack mobile locker systems, said Bob Foht, the company’s director of sales and marketing.
“It is a continuous group of three lockers on wheels,” he said. “The firefighter gear gets wet and needs to be properly dried, so ours are an open design, heavy-gauge modular storage system for storing firefighter gear.”
The lockers have different hangers for jackets, helmets, boots, gloves and more—all of which were donated by the company, Foht said. They also provided their mini-mobile hose and SCBA bottle storage system.
The lockers have been sent to the Extreme Makeover team. The total donation was about $20,000, Foht said.
Decker is feeling a lot of joy since the crew of Extreme Makeover entered his life.
“This whole time I’ve been smiling,” he said. “I think every opportunity they get they try to make you cry. But it is a fabulous experience. These guys are really in their positions because they care for the people they are helping out. They aren’t doing it because it’s a job or it’s an opportunity for them to be on TV. They do it because they care.”
