Middle Point FD pushes in new equipment

VW independent staff/submitted information

MIDDLE POINT — Firefighters and others gathered at the Middle Point Fire Department on Sunday for what’s known as a push-in ceremony for two new pieces of equipment.

Engine 81 is a 2024 FB94 Spartan Pumper Built by Fouts Brothers in Milledgeville, Georgia. EMS Unit 88 is built on a Ford F450 chassis with a Medix MSV2 body on it. It was built in Indiana and both units are expected to have a service life of 20 years.

Middle Point volunteer firefighters have spent the last few weeks doing the final outfitting work of Unit 88 in their spare time installing radios and installing other miscellaneous equipment getting it ready to put in service. Both pieces are now ready to respond to emergency calls.

A push-in ceremony dates back more than 100 years. Over a century ago, after fire crews returned from a call on horse-drawn apparatus, the horses were not able to back into the station, so firefighters had to push the equipment into the bay. The need to manually move the equipment is long gone. Now, in honor of those early crews, it has become a tradition that fire departments hold a push-in ceremony when putting new apparatus in service.

The Middle Point Fire department has 32 volunteer firefighters in its department. In 2023, the department responded to 288 call for service to citizens of six townships and two hospitals and the communities within those townships along with numerous calls for mutual aid from surrounding communities.