PIKETON, Ohio — The Piketon VFW Post 2832 has donated funds to the Piketon Seal Township Fire Department to help outfit its water rescue team, after a string of flood calls this year left the department identifying gaps in its swift-water equipment, the fire department said.
Fire department leaders accepted the donation from the VFW post in a presentation outside the department’s station, in front of one of its engines. In a Facebook post, the department said that after recent water rescue calls, it had identified several areas of need for the water rescue team, and that the VFW’s gift would go toward addressing them.
The Piketon Seal Township Fire Department is a volunteer department serving Piketon and the surrounding Seal Township area of Pike County. Its water rescue team has handled a series of weather-driven rescues this year, including a late-summer flood response in which a rescue boat capsized in fast-moving water along U.S. 23 and crews ultimately used a hovercraft to pull two residents and their cat from a flood-damaged manufactured home. Those calls, department officials said, highlighted equipment shortfalls the VFW donation is intended to help close.
VFW Post 2832, chartered in Piketon and officially known as the Pike Memorial Post, is a nonprofit organization supporting local veterans, their dependents, widows and orphans. The post, located on South West Street in Piketon, regularly supports community organizations and first responders in the county.
“We thank you, VFW Post 2832, for your support in helping keep our community safe,” the fire department said in its post announcing the donation.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Piketon Seal Township Fire Department.
