Deepstep Volunteer Fire Department Wants Your Help

DEEPSTEP, Georgia (41 NBC/WMGT) – In Deepstep, the volunteer fire department has a problem. One of the vehicles in the department is unreliable and the fire department wants your help to do something about it.

Joseph Mckinnon has been a volunteer firefighter for the Deepstep Volunteer Fire Department for the past two years. He’s been one of the department’s workhorses. He spoke with 41 NBC about the vehicle and the problems he’s had with it.

“It’s changed how I’ve responded, I’ve known in the past that that truck wouldn’t crank,” Mckinnon said. “I’ve grabbed the bag and the defibrilator out of the truck and put it in my own personal vehicle knowing that I can get there faster in my personal vehicle.”

Mckinnon, known as the “GQ fireman” because when he arrives at a scene he’s wearing a suit and tie, has found a way to pay for a new vehicle and from all places, he found it on Facebook.

“Statefarm has this contest going on Facebook where if you submit your application about why you need $25,000, out of 3,000 submissions they picked the top 200,” Mckinnon said.

Since the contest began, Mckinnon and the fire department have received votes from all over the country. 

“The top 40 will get $25,000, the top 40 vote getters, and we’ve had everybody we know vote like crazy to help us..I got people in New Jersey voting for us, people out in Texas, people who will never see a Deepstep truck, voting to try and help us.”

And the department has seen progress from all of the voters’ help.

“We’ve come all the way up from the nineties in to the fourties and we’re pretty much stuck there, we need to get all the votes we can get and the contest ends next week and if we don’t get in the top 40 all of this would of been for nothing,” Mckinnon told 41 NBC.

“I hope that the folks out there would vote for us so that we can get a better vehicle to respond to emergencies.”

You can log on to Facebook.com and search for “Statefarm Neighborhood Assist.” Then look for “Better Rescue Vehicle” and vote for them up to ten times per day.

The deadline is April 21.