Effort for new fire station in Rich Creek progresses, to stop aging facility from becoming ‘part of the disaster’

Floodwaters swept through the town of Rich Creek and pooled just inches away from the firehouse bays when Hurricane Helene hit in September 2024. It was a wake-up call that the department needed a new home and needed it quickly, said Richard Cox, the town manager. 

“It just goes without saying that, on the day of a disaster, the fire department cannot be part of the disaster. They have to be the response to the disaster,” he said.

Volunteer firefighters were still able to access necessary equipment, answer emergency calls and assist with cleanup operations, but the flooding was too close for comfort, Cox said.

Before the hurricane, the town’s leaders had already identified problems with the old fire station — leaks, cramped quarters and no ventilation system, to name a few — and secured grant money to begin constructing a new one. But Helene made it a “no-brainer” to pick up the pace on raising money and breaking ground, Cox said. 

Two years later, the Giles County town is about halfway through its construction project, with the shell of the new station completed and designs ready for the rest. More progress is paused until additional funding is secured, Cox said, as town leaders seek about $800,000 to close a gap in the project’s budget. It’s a big task for the quiet little town, tucked in the Appalachian Mountains along the New River and West Virginia state line.

To raise the money, town leaders are diversifying their pool of project funding, planning to combine revenue from grants, property sales, donations and more. It’s the only option, Cox said, for a town like Rich Creek, where the tax base is small and capital improvement investments aren’t an option like they are in larger localities. There’s still a long way to go, he added, but “our theory was if we didn’t start, we’d never finish — so at least we’ve started.”

Fire departments nationwide, especially those in rural communities, struggle to fund infrastructure overhauls. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that it would take between $70 billion and $100 billion to fund needed fire station renovations and replacements across the country, as buildings like Rich Creek’s age and demands on the fire service change.

“We know we’re not going to be able to grab enough money doing hot dog sales to finish this out,” Cox said. “But we’re not sitting around just hoping that at some point somebody gives us a whole bunch of money. We’re trying everything we can. The energy is there, the dedication is there.”

The reality in Rich Creek

The Rich Creek Fire Department is run by a group of about 20 volunteers with an annual budget of about $33,000, said Warren Wilson, the fire chief. The department answers about 75 calls annually, responding to emergencies including car accidents, brush fires and structure fires. It serves the town and neighboring communities across Giles County — especially next-door Glen Lyn, which dissolved its charter, became unincorporated and shut down its fire department in 2024. 

Rich Creek also discussed becoming an unincorporated community last year, after five of its six town council members resigned, but has moved forward with its town administration and a new council.

Rich Creek’s fire station was built shortly after the department was founded in 1947, Wilson said, and its age shows. The walls leak whenever it rains. There’s a single bathroom that men and women have to share. One wall unit is the only source of air conditioning, and truck fumes hang in the air because the building doesn’t have a ventilation system. The station is also in the floodplain and along narrow downtown streets that can be difficult to navigate with a fire truck.

Rich Creek’s dilemma isn’t unique. A recent needs assessment conducted by the National Fire Protection Association showed that inadequate facilities present challenges that stand in the way of fire and EMS response, particularly in rural and volunteer fire departments. At the time of the 2020 survey, 44% of fire stations were over 40 years old and thus likely to lack various health and safety protections. 

The national survey also found that 56% of departments did not have exhaust emission control — a problem that creates health hazards from the buildup of fumes. In small departments that serve 2,500 residents or fewer, 82% don’t have the ventilation systems. 

Rich Creek’s new fire station will have the upgrades that firefighters need and is located away from the floodplain and closer to U.S. 460, Cox said, which gives first responders quicker access to nearby communities and accidents on the roadway. The shell of the new building was completed in August, after crews broke ground in March. 

Some Virginia localities have large enough tax bases to include station repairs in capital improvement programs. Loudoun County, for example, opened a new 20,500-square-foot fire station earlier this year — with apparatus bays, bunkrooms, dining and break areas, storage and laundry rooms, training and office spaces, and a fitness center — after a $29 million capital improvement investment. Similar investments have been made in midsize cities such as Lynchburg, which is dedicating $8.6 million over a five-year capital improvement plan to modernize five of its fire stations, according to the city’s capital improvement project dashboard. 

Rich Creek’s challenge, Cox said, is raising money for the project without that kind of tax base. Rich Creek has about 750 residents, many of whom live at or below the poverty line, he said.

And the main pot of state money that is directed to the fire service can only be used for certain expenses, such as training, and cannot be used for general facility construction and upgrades. Localities cover about 97% of the bill for Virginia’s fire and EMS response. 

Clicking together ‘puzzle pieces’ of funding

In a 2023 report from the U.S. Fire Administration and FEMA, researchers wrote that today’s firefighters have “more duties with fewer dollars to support them.” The report identifies various alternative funding sources available for EMS and fire protection services, their pros and cons and best practices for securing them. 

“Striking the right balance between different sources and expenditures of local revenue has become an essential skill for EMS and fire administrators and chief officers. So, too, has the ability to identify and acquire grants and other alternative revenue sources,” the report said.

Those alternative sources can range from community fundraisers to private investors who offer in-kind donations, according to the report, but it all comes down to matching available resources with department needs. 

In 2021, Rich Creek received about $770,000 from a federal pandemic relief grant to construct its new fire station. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the design process at the same time that construction costs “just started ballooning,” Cox said.

By 2024, when building plans were finalized and permits were secured, the new fire hall’s price tag had about doubled due to inflation, and town leaders estimated needing another $800,000 to finish the project. Since then, they’ve been diversifying their funding pools to close the gap. 

To spend the federal grant before it expired, town leaders directed funds toward the construction of the shell of the building. Progress on the inside of the station relies on gathering more “puzzle pieces” of funding, Cox said.

“And it’s a lot of puzzle pieces,” he said. “It would be nice if someone said, ‘Hey, I’ve got $800,000 to finish this thing out.’ But it’s not going to happen that way. So it’s going to come in pieces — $50 chunks all the way up to possibly $50,000 chunks.”

Property sales are one such funding piece, Cox said. The town plans to sell some small properties it owns in residential areas and to sell the old firehouse once the department moves to the new one. Town leaders also plan to sell the property where the new firehouse sits to a local business that is planning to expand, then lease back just the area needed for the building. Those moves should net the town just over $200,000, he said. 

Networking with private investors and regional government representatives is also key, Cox said, so everyone from local business leaders to members of Congress and the general assembly “knows our story” and can help direct funds or funding opportunities to Rich Creek. 

Cox is also always keeping his eye open for foundation and government grants, mainly by scanning GrantWatch for opportunities that align with the fire department’s needs. He said the state Department of Emergency Management, Norfolk Southern, and local utility and healthcare companies are on his go-to list for applications because they often have grant opportunities that support first responders.

Fundraising is another important source of project funds, Cox said. The fire department has accumulated about $5,000 so far from events such as hot dog sales and festivals, including a recent autumn festival that featured live music, raffles, vendors and activities for kids.

The trick with fundraising is that the cash can disappear fast, Wilson said, as the department struggles to afford turnout gear and other equipment as prices skyrocket. He said he recently spent $8,000 for 25 helmets — about a quarter of the department’s annual budget, which also has to cover utilities, vehicle maintenance and more. 

The hidden costs and benefits of fire department fundraisers

The longer the fire department takes to raise money for the new station, the more expensive construction materials and labor get, Wilson said. So community fundraisers, which take time to plan and execute and net relatively small amounts of revenue, can feel frustrating for the overall trajectory of the project, he said. The average hot dog dinner is “a drop in the bucket,” he said — it clears a few hundred dollars, once supplies are paid for, so easily more than a thousand cookouts would be needed to fill the project’s fundraising gap.

Fundraisers also take volunteers’ valuable time away from training and other duties, Wilson said. 

“It’s not that we have the time,” he said. “We make the time. That’s what we do as volunteers.”

Even so, Wilson said, the fire department is very visible in the Rich Creek community because of the events it hosts, and “it’s great for the community to come out and see us. It’s good P.R. regardless of how you look at it.”

Recruitment is always a priority as the number of volunteer firefighters decreases state and nationwide while the Rich Creek department gets more calls across a larger service area that seeks mutual aid, Wilson said. 

“It’s been my experience that there’s a lot of people out there that want to be a part of something, want to be a volunteer. They just don’t know who to ask or how to start,” Cox said. “So buying a hot dog from one of the firemen gives them an opportunity to say, ‘I’d like to be part of this,’ and have that connection.”

At this stage in the project, community buy-in is holding town leaders accountable for seeing the construction through, Cox said. 

“We’ve had the public hearings, the fundraisers, the whole nine yards,” he said. “Everybody is saying ‘do this, do this, do this.’ At this point, it’s really not a want. It is a need.”