COAL GROVE – It’s an end to a firefighting era for Coal Grove’s Jim Sherman.

Sunday, February 06, 2000

COAL GROVE – It’s an end to a firefighting era for Coal Grove’s Jim Sherman.

The 43-year veteran of the Coal Grove Volunteer Fire Department resigned from his position as fire chief Thursday.

"I can’t remember when I became chief," Sherman said. "It was somewhere in the early 1980s. And I don’t really know why I became a volunteer. I moved to Coal Grove in January 1957 and I moved across the fence from the fire chief. He asked me to join the fire department and, of course, I did."

Sherman handed his letter of resignation to Mayor Tom McKnight at Thursday’s council meeting.

McKnight opened the letter to find two words penned under a fire department letterhead: "I quit!"

McKnight laughed and showed council members, then told a story about a Salvation Army chief who once sent a written speech to a conference to be read. The letter listed one word, "others."

"I feel like, we feel like, you have always thought about others, McKnight said. "In the time you’ve served, you’ve never let this village down."

During his many years of service, Sherman has witnessed firefighting change dramatically.

"The first fire truck was a 1936 model Ford," Sherman said. "They look a little bit different now, and they are a lot higher, too. The first truck had one reel and a 300-gallon tank. At the time, it was a state-of-the-art truck. It was the only one in the county besides the one in Ironton. These other departments in the county hadn’t even formed yet."

Back then, fire wasn’t that much of a threat, Sherman added.

"I was raised in Kitts Hill and I never remember a fire," he said. "You didn’t know what a fire department was unless you went to Ironton. It’s all this new electrical stuff and the heating systems. When technological things started coming, that’s when the fires started."

One such fire claimed the fire station and town hall in 1974, Sherman said.

"The whole thing burnt," he said. "It was just brick walls afterward. Everything inside was gone."

The volunteers managed to get the fire truck out. And with the assistance of Ironton’s fire department the crew tried to extinguish the blaze.

"It was 2 a.m.," Sherman said. "The wind was blowing 30 miles per hour. We couldn’t stop the fire. The wind was blowing too bad."

The buildings were rebuilt in 1976. By that time the department had bought a second truck. They bought a third one in 1979 and a fourth one in 1985, Sherman said.

"The firefighting business has changed quit a bit," he said. "Things have changed a lot. Everything’s on computers now. Back when I got on, you were lucky if you had a typewriter."

More than the record-keeping has changed, though. Prices on fire equipment also have increased.

"Our first truck cost less than a thousand dollars," Sherman said. "The older one here now was $79,000. The newest one was $92,000. Everything you buy connected to fire is double the price."

When Sherman first started, the department didn’t even have protective outer gear. There wasn’t even a paging system to contact fellow firefighters.

"When the sirens went off, anyone available showed up at the fire," he said. "Everything kept getting better and better, though."

Sherman will stick around for a little while, though, to make sure things go smoothly.

"After I give up the fire chief’s job, I’m going to mess around with them during the daytime," Sherman said. "That’s the hardest time to find firefighters, and I’m retired. I’ll run the radios and anything to help. But my health’s given out on me and I’m not able to run around with the fire trucks any more."