Members of Cullman County fire departments are seen with the boat purchased with CCCDC grant money.

The Trimble and Crane Hill fire departments have put together two grants awarded by the Cullman County Community Development Commission to purchase a fire and rescue boat.

Members of the fire departments drove more than 2,500 miles to retrieve the boat.

The boat can release nearly 700 gallons of water per minute and can travel around 25 miles per hour.

Trimble Fire Chief Bruce Whitlock said the TriToon boat is fully equipped and rigged for firefighting.

Members of the CCCDC, Champ Crocker, Josh Speakman, Rep. Corey Harbison, Bradley Williams and several community members were present to see the boat at Smith Lake Marina recently.

“It also has a cabin on it—and it does have equipment on it for search and rescue. We are still equipping it with lights at this time. But we did buy the boat ready to go, completely operational, from Idaho.”

Members of the fire department had it on the water to show the water power of the boat.

“It’s primary use is as a fire/rescue boat and will probably stay in Trident Marina, which is in the Crane Hill service area,” Whitlock said. “They have a bigger service area than we do. There are more residents on the lake than any other department. We received a $12,000 grant and so did Crane Hill and naturally we put those together and we were able to afford this $24,000 boat.”

Chief Whitlock said without a doubt, this new boat will be beneficial.

“Right now, we’re all scattered apart from each other; were looking at having four to five boats eventually. We’d like to have one that’s trailered, so it can quickly go by water,” Whitlock said. 

The point to have four boats is being in close proximity to fire and accidents and being able to get there quickly. The lake is becoming a lot more crowded and houses don’t have good water sources from the water system. If we can get a boat to the fire, we can pump water to an engine and possibly pump it to the system.”

Whitlock shared about a recent incident where the use of a fire and safety boat quickly played a role.

“There was a lightning strike at Smith Lake Park and a girl was injured,” Whitlock said. “We already had a call to the park, for heat exhaustion. Trimble’s responders and an ambulance were there. We were loading up when the lightning strike happened, one of the rare times that you actually know that you saved someone’s life, being at the right place at the right time. We were there a few seconds after to work on the young lady… lightning could happen at anytime and that’s a need for a response.”