Hanover VFD receives canned drinking water from Anheuser-Busch to support wildfire response efforts
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Water donated through partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council
Hanover VFD Deputy Chief Heather Babecki, right, accepts a shipment from ATG distributors. Photo submitted
Sharing is caring: Richville, Ray and Equality VFDs pick up their water from the Hanover stations. Pictured from left are Joe Jones, Hanover; Jim Hammil, Richville; Heather Babecki, Hanover; Jack Newberry, Ray; and Denny Turner, Equality. Photo submitted
Special to the News
Hanover Fire recently received a donation of canned emergency drinking water from leading brewer Anheuser-Busch to help keep its responders hydrated as they battle wildfires this season.
On July 9, 98 cases of water were dropped off by local Anheuser-Busch wholesaler partner, ATG Distribution. The water will help maintain firefighters’ hydration during long incidents or disasters such as wildfires, which is a major safety concern for many departments.
Hanover Volunteer Fire Department is a small rural department covering about 16,000 acres of land or 25 square miles, with a resident population estimated around 1,000 people.
According to Coosa County Revenue Commissioner Debra Lamberth, Hanover Fire covers 774 parcels of land and 217 site-built residential structures, not including mobile homes. Hanover Fire also covers four businesses and four churches, along with the sprawling summer camp campus of Poplar Point.
Hanover Fire is the first-due department for the campus of Coosa Central High School, its vocational buildings, sports centers, and 4-H clubhouse.
Hanover Fire answers approximately 150 calls for service each year. Hanover Fire answers calls for emergencies ranging from structure fires, wild-land fires, first response for medical issues, and motor vehicle accidents, to name a few. While Hanover Fire operations are contained mostly within its district, they are often called upon to cover areas in Coosa County when volunteers are not available in those other districts.
“This is the second consecutive year we have been fortunate enough to be awarded this water grant,” said Deputy Chief Heather Babecki. “This water is a tremendous help during operations, especially fire operations that quickly sap the hydration of our firefighters. It’s especially critical in the summer months when wearing the heavy Nomex turnout gear that must be donned during fire-fighting activity. We try to carry a small cold cooler of this water on our apparatus when we leave the station. Often, we are the only crew who remembers to bring some amount of water with us. And, we do share it with personnel from other departments on multi-department efforts ‘til we can get more water on scene. If the incident goes long, a call-back to other Hanover members who are not on the current call can grab more of this water from our station and bring it to the scene to help everyone. It’s been a tremendous aid in the health of working fire crews on many scenes and a blessing to have available.”
Hanover Fire offered cases of the water to all 10 fire departments in Coosa County, along with Coosa County EMS. This year, five Coosa fire departments accepted the offer for 10 cases of water each: Denny Turner accepted for Equality, Jim Hammil for Richville and Jack Newberry for Ray. At the time of this story, two remaining departments, Rockford and Marble Valley, had not scheduled their water pick-up from the Hanover firehouse.
“It’s funny,” said Babecki, “because the water is canned by Anheuser-Busch, their logo is very prominent on the cans. This has turned some civilian heads on fire scenes not understanding what it is. You see onlookers startled at first trying to see if fire crews are enjoying a cold brew on scene; but, we point to the large blue letters that say ‘WATER’ on one side of the can, and onlookers then nod and we can see them smile and mouth ‘OK’ or give us the ‘thumbs up.’ It does make us laugh when this happens.”
The water was donated by Anheuser-Busch through a partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC). Anheuser-Busch has a longstanding tradition of pausing beer production each year to provide emergency drinking water and supplies for disaster relief efforts.
The production pause enables the company to apply its production and logistics expertise to can clean, safe drinking water that is ready to distribute when disaster strikes. Since 1988, the brewer has donated more than 90 million cans of emergency drinking water to communities impacted by natural disasters and other crises.
Building on this commitment, the brewer teamed up with the NVFC – the leading nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, emergency medical and rescue services – in 2019 to provide emergency drinking water to help firefighters stay hydrated and healthy when responding to wildfires and large incidents. To date, the program has donated more than 8.9 million cans of water to nearly 2,500 volunteer fire departments across almost all 50 states.
About the National Volunteer Fire Council
NVFC serves as the “voice of the volunteer” in the national arena and provides critical advocacy, resources, programs, and education for first responders across the nation. Learn more at www.nvfc.org.
