Aside from the Pisgah National Forest, you’d be hard pressed to find an area in Burke County more rural than that served by South Mountains Fire Rescue.
The fire station is located on Gus Peeler Road at the intersection with Old Hwy. 18 in the very southeastern corner of Burke County.
If you had three stones handy, you could stand in front of the station and very nearly throw one into Lincoln County, a second into Catawba County, and a third into Cleveland County.
The area is unincorporated, of course, so the fire station serves as a virtual community center where fundraising suppers are held, folks gather for community meetings, and cast their ballots on Election Day.
Needless to say, the folks who populate these hills and hollers where deer roam in abundance and where the night sky is spectacularly dark, take unvarnished pride in their fire department and its history.
Right now, that pride is focused on the 30th anniversary of the department which will be celebrated on Saturday, Oct. 10, with a gathering to include a free meal, local musicians performing, and a whole lot of reminiscing.
Now wait a minute. Free meal? Yes, you read correctly. Department members and community residents will be joining forces to cook up a supper highlighted by chicken and dumplings, green beans, slaw, and home-made desserts.
Iva Rhoney, one of the residents who first pushed for the department’s establishment nearly 50 years ago, wouldn’t go so far as to describe those chicken and dumplings as legendary, but she did say, “they’re mighty, mighty, good.”
No takeout meals will be served up that day from 3-7 p.m. Sitting down and enjoying the company is mandatory. And if your money is burning a hole in your pocket, you’re most welcome to put out the fire by dropping a few bills in the donation bucket.
“We look forward to sharing this memorable occasion with our community and thanking everyone who has supported South Mountains Fire Rescue over the past 30 years,” said Rhoney, who served a couple of terms as Burke County Clerk of Court back in the 1990s.
“We want to take this opportunity to honor and remember those who took the first steps to establish the fire department,” Rhoney continued, “as well as show our appreciation to our community which continues to support us.”
Rhoney and several other early supporters of the fire department, including Rita Mull Nichols, Dell Walker Evans, and retired Chief Allen Hudson, sat down with a Paper reporter to talk about the department’s birth on a September afternoon.
They gather around a table in the kitchen area of the fire station, a table piled high with scrapbooks, old photographs, and mementos from the department’s early years.
Talk of launching a fire department in the area began back in 1980, at a time when South Mountains State Park was just beginning to become a regional travel destination and when the adjacent Pine Mountain community seemed poised on the cusp of growth.
The reason a fire department was necessary? Sheer necessity, answered Evans. Homes and small businesses simply had no fire protection, and insurance rates reflected that lack.
Although the initial referendum on establishing the department was unsuccessful, organizers kept pushing, selling residents on the necessity of having dependable fire protection.
A key leader of that effort was the late Edith Parker, owner of Parker Industries, which is located just across the road from the fire station.
Another election in 1994 gave a positive verdict and the department was officially chartered in 1996
“We now have 34 firefighters on board,” said Hudson, “all of them volunteers. Our average response time is about eight minutes. About 60% of our calls are for First Responders while the remaining 40% are fire calls.”
The department now averages, Hudson said, about 220 calls a year, spread out over an area of 27 square miles. South Mountains Fire District borders the Enola Fire District to the north and the George Hildebrand Fire District to the east.
“This really is a story about a community coming together to meet a need,” said Rhoney. “And then staying together to support this department and the people who staff it.”
