Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department

Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department was founded in 1960 by a core group of individuals living among the Hiawatha National Forest wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, with a hand-me-down fire engine on a piece of property loaned from the United States Forest Service. Our firefighting brigade entirely volunteers their time; no one receives a cent of compensation for answering a fire call. They unselfishly organize fundraisers, from an annual flea market sale and auction to bake sales, to foot the expense of each firefighter’s personal equipment needed for the occasional house fire and regular forest fires that threaten everyday living among the small communities located in this vast, heavily wooded acreage. Our firefighters even plow the department’s property with their own vehicles.
With antiquated firefighting apparatus, these firefighters continue the legacy of their founding fathers by totally volunteering their time and energies to ensure that the small populace living within these three counties, 8 townships, and 410 square miles have some peace of mind knowing that their homes and lives are protected. TCVFD receives no taxed base income because of our unique situation. All funding, which must also cover the cost of insurance for the complete department, comes from the unselfish donation of time and items from the community, and is basically raised on a single day from a flea market and junque auction that takes place during an open house of the fire department’s grounds where locals gather to support the department by participating in the activities while eating local homemade fare. The area children enjoy exploring the fire equipment, almost all of which are older than their parents, and by all means could easily be displayed as antiques in their own right. Yet, the brave men and women who belong to this elite group of firefighters, not only have to be proficient on their own equipment, but must keep their training up-to-date on state-of-the-art equipment that many of our neighboring departments take for granted.
While attending a recent county training, fellow firefighters from other departments chuckled when we arrived with our 33-year-old converted milk truck tanker, teasing us for bringing out one of our older pieces – while in fact; it is one of our newest. Most of them enjoyed reminiscing an earlier time as they had trained on a vehicle like ours when it was new. All of our vehicles are older than 25 years and 50% are on loan from Department of Natural Resources – equipment the DNR inherited from military surplus. In sore need of newer equipment, our department is resigned to spending most of our resources on maintaining what we have in perfect working order, ready to go out at a moment’s notice to extinguish a fire or rescue a lost vacationer.
Our retiring firefighters continue hoping that those now joining will one day have modern equipment, yet remain proud knowing they serve as true volunteers.