Claylick Volunteer Fire Department

Claylick Volunteer Fire Department was founded in March of 1981. Members of the community established Claylick after a house burned down in the area revealing the need for fire protection within the community. Since the doors opened in 1981 Claylick Fire Department has worked to provide the best possible services to its community. This proactive attitude led to the addition of providing medical coverage to our first due area in 1994. Today Claylick FD provides services such as vehicle extrication, high angle rescue, fire prevention, fire suppression, and paramedic and EMT level first response.

Claylick Fire Department has been governed by a Board of Directors since its start in 1981. Since Claylick is an unincorporated community our Board acts as our local government providing guidance on By-laws, finances, and works with Claylick’s officers in maintaining a progressive department. The Board also has privileges on the operations side to assist on large and complicated incidents. The Board is currently composed of six positions; chairman, treasurer, secretary, and three board members. Our current Chairman, Ricky Chandler, held many ranks on the operations side until 2001 when he joined the Board of Directors. Ricky was preceded by E. C. Hooper who served as chairman till his death in 2009. Claylick’s Training building is dedicated to E. C. Hooper in honor of his many years of service. Treasurer, Jennifer Chandler, joined the Board in 2002. Secretary, Chris Mitchell joined the board in 2003. Board members Cindy and Cotton Dawson have served since 2005.

2011 was a very exciting year for the department. We remodeled in January due to a plumbing break that flooded the station. We added two bedrooms, a larger office space, a handicap accessible bathroom with shower stall, and a small training room for intradepartmental education. The bedrooms were added so that members could voluntarily stay to improve response times to emergencies and to provide temporary shelter for those community members that were displaced by fire or other events. For the first time in the department’s history Claylick received a brand new rescue tanker with grant funds provided by the Department of Homeland Security. The Claylick Community added $18,000 to DHS’s $190,000 to purchase the truck. We celebrated our 30 year anniversary in March of 2011. Two members increased their medical licensure from EMT to Paramedic in August of 2011 after a grueling year and half long program. Another two members also stepped up their licensure from EMR to EMT after attending Columbia State Community College in August. Claylick achieved another record in October by reaching out to the most people thus far through its fire prevention activities. 2011 was a very eventful year for Claylick Fire Department and we are looking forward to many more!