September is National Firefighter Appreciation Month and for Greene County each incorporated town has its own fire department.

Greene County Sheriff and Jefferson Fire Chief Jack Williams says all fire departments work well together and do various training exercises to further learn how best to handle situations, which he says is very beneficial.

“Having that working relationship makes it a whole lot easier because you can get a large volume of water to pretty much anywhere in a hurry. Or if a town’s got a water tower issue or a water main break, we always jump in, or they’ll jump in to help us if needed. It’s a good working relationship here in Greene County.”  

Williams points out other services that fire departments provide, other than just responding to fires.

“We’ll help with ambulances with lift assist if needed, vehicle accidents, (and) hazmat spills. If we have just a minor car accident and there’s oil on the ground, we’ll go out and clean that up, or if a gas station has someone dump gas or diesel on the ground, we’re the ones that are called to clean that up also. One thing that we don’t do here is getting cats out of trees and stuff like that, that’s just not something we do. We are emergency-only related.”      

Williams adds the Jefferson Fire Department has two rescue boats, grain bin and confinement rescue equipment to aid in other situations.