Alva Fire Department History Page 3
2000 - 2002
On March 8th 2000 Mr. Dan Threlkeld from Channel 4 in Oklahoma City came to Alva to help the Fire Department do a community wide Tornado awareness program. Here is a Picture that was taken of Mr. Threlkeld signing autographs at the chamber office by Yvonne Miller.

On April 12th 2000 Chief Farris replaced our old rescue with a newer model rescue.

On April 25th 2000 Oklahoma Farm Bureau brought their Fire Safety House to Longfellow School so the kids from K-5th grades could go through it.

In July 2000 Fire Rescue Magazine did a story on the Alva Fire Department.

On Friday August, 4 2000 at 64 years old Jack Haltom lost his battle with cancer and will be missed by all who knew him.

September, 8 2000: The Alva Fire Department had a booth at the Woods County Fair. This a picture of Craig Johnson and Tim Starbuck working the Booth. Here is a picture of Fred Miller and Craig Johnson.

October, 1 2000: Since July 1st we have had only 2 inches of rain creating high fire danger. today a power line 11 miles west and 4 north of Alva started arcing because of the wind, it caught the grass on fire, while fighting the grass fire Fred Miller drove into the unburned area to get out of the smoke and see were he needed to go, the wind switched directions and as fred was leaving the area the front end fell into a wash out hidden by the tall grass getting the truck stuck, because of the amount of tall dead grass and 30 mph winds they were unable to stop the fire, they had to leave the brush rig behind.

October, 12 2000: This week is fire prevention week. This is a picture of Allen Schwerdtfeger showing the kids at Washington school our fire truck.

November, 2 2000 5:30 AM: The Alva Fire Department Received a call that the Nite-Lite bar at 1220 Lane was on fire. Approximately 40 % of the building was totally destroyed by fire and the rest of the building severely damaged by smoke, heat, and water. The building and its contents are considered to be a total loss. For many years this place was a popular hang out for the college kids, many years of memories erased by this fire. The fire is under investigation buy Mr. Ron Horton of the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal's Office, members of the Woods County Sheriff's Office and the Alva Fire Department. Also assisting in the on scene investigation was an accelerate sniffing dog named Annisette and her handler/trainer Agent JoAnne Sellars of the Oklahoma State FireMarshal’s Office. This Picture Taken on the East side of the building looking in the front door. This Picture Taken of Chief Farris looking through the remains, the view is as if you were standing by a bar stool in the center looking North. This Picture Taken by the far north pool table looking East.

November, 17 2000: Phil Burrow and Allen Schwerdtfeger took part at a job fair held at the fair grounds.

January 29, 2001 Full time members of the Alva Fire Department started the task of repainting the apparatus room. This is a picture of Chief Farris and Kirk Trekell. This is a picture of JW Miller on the Left and Fred Miller on the right. This is a picture of Craig Johnson painting. Also Fred Miller painted this Mural in the apparatus room. 1. 2. 3.

February 26 2001: We had a retirement dinner for Max McDermott and J.C. Dixon.

May 2, 2001: We got to take a ride on the train, as part of a class presented by B.N.S.F. here are some pics 1. 2. 3.

July 6, 2001: Craig Johnson worked his last shift with the Alva Fire Department, with the remaining vacation time his official date of retirement is August 14, 2001. Good Luck Craig!

October 11, 2001: Allen Schwerdtfeger and Phil Burrow went to Lincoln School for Fire Prevention week. Thanks to the many people who donated to the cause we had nice hand outs for the Kids. This is a picture of Allen in one of the 4th grade rooms. This is a picture of Phil in one of the 5th grade rooms.

October 13, 2001: Allen Schwerdtfeger and Phil Burrow are in the homecoming parade. Allen is in Engine One and Phil is in the rescue.

October 17, 2001: The kids from the Headstart program came to the station for a tour.

October 29, 2001: We had a retirement dinner for Craig Johnson.

November 5, 2001: City Manager Steve Tomberlin stood before the Council and made 10 Proposals. One of these proposals was to do away with all but 2 full-time members of the Alva Fire Department. View the proposal.

November 29, 2001: When the proposal first came out, petitions were put out all over town. Today we picked them up and counted and found the total to be 2031. The petition was to keep the Alva Fire Department a full-time fire department. We delivered these petitions to council member Monty Pfleider so that he could present them to the council Monday night December 3rd.

November 30, 2001 On the front page of the Alva Review Courier, Mayor Stan Kline withdraws the fire department proposal. When the agenda comes out, no proposals are on the agenda and neither is anybody who had signed up to discuss the fire proposal.

December 3, 2001: A sad day for the Alva Fire Department. At approximately 2:30 pm we responded to a car wreck 2 miles east of Alva. We discovered that both people pinned in a pickup were both volunteers from this department, One didn't make it. Cecil Dooley and Steve Spellman were in this pickup, it was with much sorrow we discovered that Steve Spellman didn't make it, and fortunately Cecil will be okay. Steve will never be forgotten.

December 24, 2001: John Farris, Bill Beeler and J.C. Dixon went to Mayfield Kansas to pick up our new 2001 model Brush-Rig to replace the 1993 Brush-Rig. The older '93 Brush-Rig was manufactured by Mertz Inc. and is owned by Woods County District 1, and will be housed and maintained by the Capron Fire Department.

January 1, 2002: This is the Alva Fire Department's 100th Year of Service to the Alva community. The new patch has been incorporated into the banner.

January 4, 2002: We put our new Brush-Rig in service today lacking only the decals, flashlights and Radio Booster, we delivered our old one to the Capron Fire Department.

January 21, 2002: Today is Tony Reed's first day as a member of the Alva Fire Department, he will be working 8-5 until he is ready to go on shifts. Also at tonight's council meeting Mayor Stan Kline resigned from his position as mayor of the City of Alva, effective immediately.

January 30, 2002: At approximately 5:30 PM the Electricity in all of Northwest Oklahoma including Alva went out due to an ice storm that hit that morning. we have a generator in the back so we had lights, phones, radios and some heat. Power was restored about 30 hours later, as of today, February 4, 2002 a lot of towns are still with out power.

The following was copied from the O.G&E web site:
OG&E expects the cost of the Jan. 30 ice storm to exceed $100 million, which would likely cause the company to seek financial relief from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. It is by far the costliest storm in OG&E’s 100-year history, and also the worst in terms of the number of customers affected, at least 195,000. More than 2,000 people, including some 700 outside contractors, continue working to restore power to the affected areas in northern, northwestern, and central Oklahoma. Heavy coatings of ice caused extensive damage to the OG&E system across a wide area, up to 15,000 square miles. “This is the most extensive damage we have ever seen,” said Paul Renfrow, OGE Energy director of public affairs. “Repairs are ongoing and the final cost is not yet known, but our preliminary estimate is that it could be more than $100 million, 80 percent of which is a capital expense.” Renfrow said while no one storm would typically have a material impact on OG&E’s financial position, the January ice storm has far exceeded all historical benchmarks. By comparison, the Christmas Ice storm in 2000 cost OG&E about $18 million, and the tornado outbreak of May 3-4, 1999 cost about $21 million. This time, the ice storm took down hundreds of miles of power lines, along with thousands of power poles, transmission structures, transformers and fixtures. Trees by the tens of thousands were shattered, causing severe problems with the power delivery systems in more than 60 affected towns. Approximately, 17,000 customers remained without power a week after the storm. "This is still very much a crisis situation,” Renfrow said. “The redundancies normally built into our system have not yet been restored. For many of those who have power, they could be only one problem away from losing it again.” It will be weeks before the transmission system is back at full strength. In the Enid area, 27 small towns have been completely blacked out because the transmission lines serving those towns are down. The ice storm came two days after OG&E filed with the Commission for a $22 million annual rate increase – about $2 a month for the average residential customer. In that filing, OG&E cited the need for increased security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, upgrades to its power generation and transmission systems in response to increased power demand by its customers, and extensive infrastructure work associated with earlier disastrous storms. Renfrow said OG&E officials are studying how to approach the issue of financial relief for the January ice storm. “Certainly, we have never dealt with a storm of this magnitude before,” he said. OG&E, Oklahoma’s largest utility, serves 700,000 customers through an interconnected network of power lines and related equipment spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.

February 12, 2002: Today Fred Miller turned in his resignation with this Saturday 03/02/02 being his last shift, Fred will start Monday in an academy to become a Driver's License Examiner in Tulsa.

April 23, 2002: Today is Cris Meyer's first day on the fire department as a full time member.

April 29, 2002: The Alva Fire Department hosted a retirement dinner for Fred Miller and Bill Beeler.

July 18, 2002: The Alva Fire Department was sent a fax from the office of Congressman Frank Lucas saying that we had been awarded $8699.00 from F.E.M.A.'s Assistance to Firefighters grant. With this money that we received, we will add our 10% ($966.00) for a total of $9665.00 and purchase a Thermal Imager.

The Alva Fire Department has 7 full time Members, and has 18 Volunteer Members.