September 20, 2003

Station 'out of service' for eight months

       White River Township Fire Chief Mike Tibbetts was on vacation a year ago today when he heard news reports of possible tornadoes southwest of Johnson County.  Tibbetts drove to Station 52 at Meridian Parke Drive and Fairview Road to help oversee operations in the event of emergencies from the storm.  Tibbetts was in his Ford Explorer outside the station, talking to Lt. James Engmark about the approaching storms.  "It was calm. Not a leaf moving, when Jimmy said, 'There it is!'"  Engmark ran into the station's bay and climbed onto a truck. Tibbetts decided to drive his vehicle away.  "First, a tree uprooted and flew into the Explorer. I could just imagine it coming through the window and my head. The car was rocking, and I pressed the accelerator to the floor and nothing happened," Tibbetts said.  "It scared the bejabbers out of me, and I've only been scared four other times in my life." That includes seeing an engine on fire while flying on an airplane.  The tornado blew in the station's southwest garage door, twisted an antenna tower like a pig's tail, buckled the east exterior wall and blew or pulled away bricks and roofing. Insulation was sucked from the attic and blown around the neighborhood.  The interior received little damage.  "It cost us $209,000 in repairs," Tibbetts said. "I had the bay's front pillars reinforced with steel and block."  For the next eight months, the station's three-man crew and an engine responded to emergencies in the northern tier of the district from Greenwood Station 92 on Fry Road, a half-mile east of Ind. 135.  The firefighters returned to their station May 20.  "What it cost was response time," Tibbetts said. "Calls that we usually arrive at in three minutes took us six or seven. We had to take different routes, and communications was a problem."  Other Station 52 equipment was shuffled to other White River Township Fire Department stations after the tornado hit. The department answered 46 calls for help that day, some in Perry Township. Firefighters also helped clean debris from roads and around homes.  The damaged station had just received a new roof.  "If I had waited another month (to get the roof replaced), I would have saved taxpayers $15,000," Tibbetts joked.  Cited as a silver lining in the disaster was the increased camaraderie between White River and Greenwood firefighters.  "It is not that we didn't get along before, but now we have a greater respect for each other and a true friendship," Tibbetts said. "The guys want to run with each other all the time now."  (Reprinted with permission from the Indianapolis Star)

  
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