WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa. – Two new units donated by T. Bruce Sales Inc. to the two departments that responded to a fire at its complex three years ago will permit them to respond more quickly to calls, the chiefs of the two fire departments said.
Several community and business leaders joined company officials and representatives of the Shenango Township Volunteer Fire Department and West Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department for a Dec. 13 demonstration of the newly outfitted rapid response units.
“The Campbell family wanted to present these units to the two local fire departments as their ‘thank you,’” said Jeffrey D. Hogue, T. Bruce Sales president. Both departments turned out to fight the Oct. 16, 2021, fire, which destroyed a 14,000-square-foot building at the fabrication and machining company. Because the fire broke out on a Saturday afternoon, no one was in the building and there were no injuries.
“They were the ones that came first to help,” said Sonny Campbell, owner of T. Bruce Sales. “I’ve been trying to help repay some of our debts.”
The two rapid response units, which cost approximately $150,000 each, are smaller and can respond more quickly to fires. Larger units responding to accidents on nearby Interstate 80 often can’t get to the accident site because they can’t get down the berms or through backed-up traffic, Hogue said.
“These units are smaller and designed to get there quicker, maybe save a life,” he added.
“It lets two guys get there real quick to start putting water on the fire, and that just cuts down on the damage to people’s property and definitely slows the progress of the fires,” said Justin Barnes, Shenango Township fire chief.
“The idea behind it is to get this truck out the door to buy us some time to get the big trucks there, with minimal personnel required to operate it compared to the bigger trucks,” said Rich Garrett, West Middlesex fire chief. The rapid response units require just two firefighters, while full-size trucks usually are staffed by at least four firefighters, if possible.
“Naturally, if you have more it’s better,” he said. “Of course, depending on the situation – we’re all volunteers. Sometimes you don’t have those four people, so you run it with three. Safetywise, four is the best possible.”
Roughly 30 firefighters from the two departments responded to the October 2021 fire, Barnes said. In addition to coping with the heat and smoke, the size of the building proved to be a challenge when it came to organizing the firefighters that day, he acknowledged.
The fire “got really bad – bad enough to tear down the building and ruin everything,” Campbell said. He and Hogue attributed the fire to one of the Segway units used for transportation around the shop buildings on the 25-acre campus, which includes T. Bruce Campbell Construction, a sister company.
The company is what Campbell described as a “job shop” that serves steel mills, coal-mining companies and others. His father incorporated the company in 1946, he recalled.
The company built a 16,000-square-foot building on the site of the destroyed structure it just started working out of this year, Hogue said. The building, which cost “well over $5 million,” has three 30-ton cranes in it.
“We do a lot of work for the steel mill industries and the underground and above-ground mining industries,” Hogue said. “We manufacture large fabrications that weigh 50-, 60,000 pounds. We machine them; we assemble them and ship them off to different customers.”
Pictured at top: Justin Barnes, Scotty Campbell and Rich Garret.