By Chris Meyers
Staff writer
   Being a township fire department in a small, rural community, the firefighters of Smith Township know the equipment needs a township department may have that sometimes cannot be met.
   So, when the department bought a new rescue truck earlier this year to replace one from 1978, it was glad to offer the truck to any department in need.
   The response was overwhelming.
   “I was surprised. We got requests from Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Maine, Rhode Island, North Carolina,” and much more, said Roger Bennett, Smith Township Fire Chief.
   In the end though, it was a fire department from a small community northwest of Lafayette that got to add the truck to its fleet.
   “We thought if we were going to give it away, we wanted to keep it in Indiana,” Bennett said of the decision to give the truck to the Richland Township Fire Department in Earl Park, Ind.
   The department only had four trucks before the donation, and did not have a truck on which to carry rescue equipment.
   “You have no idea how much this means to us” said Mark Jones a four-year veteran of the Richland Township Fire Department in Earl Park.
   Smith Township left the lights, air tank filling system and other equipment on the truck for Richland Township.
   The truck has quite a history with not only Smith Township, but also the county as whole.
   “That was one of the first rescue trucks in Whitley County,” Bennett said.
   As if the truck donation wasn’t enough, Smith Township also allowed Richland Township to help itself to water extinguishers, fire hose nozzles and other miscellaneous equipment not used in recent years locally.

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