Silver City Volunteer Fire Department Receives $80,000 Life Line

Flames raced across the state in August, devouring hundreds of homes and thousands of acres.

This fire season put a lot of stress on Oklahoma volunteer fire departments.

See complete Oklahoma Wildfire coverage

Those in Silver City are currently waiting for a big present to arrive from a Maryland fire department.

Fighting a fire in extreme drought conditions is rough on everything, especially the fire trucks.

"We've been trying to play catch up with our time and get everything back into service. We've had a lot of vehicles down. A lot of the departments are struggling," SCFD Vice Chairman Sam Hanks said.

A Silver City fire truck broke down while crews were battling the fires in Creek County.

The department doesn't have much money and Hanks said it would cost more than it's worth to fix it.

"That was the hardest part because you know a lot of these people that are out here who lost their homes and your truck goes down and you can't do anything about it," Hanks said.

Once a Maryland fire department heard about the massive fires in Oklahoma and the lack of funds stations have, it decided to help out and donate a truck.

It would typically cost at least $80,000, but all Silver City has to do is pay $2,700 in transportation fees.

"That helped us out," Hanks said. "That made quite a difference."

Hanks said the department is also in need of cash to fix other trucks like Brush 1.

It got this battle wound while fighting fires near Mannford.

"You come up to the station and you have one or two trucks still going and you have to make these repairs as quick as you can to get them back in service," Hanks said.

Hanks said it's been stressful trying to get everything up and running again, but the new truck is going to help out tremendously.

It's expected to arrive in Silver City any day now.

The department is always in need of donations.

If you'd like to support the station you can contact it through Facebook.