Pittman Center F.D. Fund for radios

 We are Pittman Center Volunteer Fire Department. Our area, Pittman Center, has suffered greatly from the recent fire in the Smoky Mountain/ Gatlinburg Area.  Besides the city of Gatlinburg, the surrounding areas such as Pittman Center, only have a volunteer fire department for their first responders. When the call was made for Cobbly Nob which is right in the heart of Pittman Center response area, our 17 volunteer fireman responded immediately. The fire escaladed very quickly and continued through the next 36 hours. During that time, most of all the resources sent did not come to Cobbly Nob, but were sent to Gatlinburg.  Many don't know this, but it was only about 20 fireman that responded to these horrific fires and had no other help the entire time. These fireman never left their post and had little to no sleep for over 36 hours. They
were able to contain the fires, evacuate people and keep the fires from engulfing more homes. During times such as these, communication is everything. It can mean the difference between life and death for our volunteers. Our communication tower and other equipment was destroyed by these fires within the first hour and they managed to still continue their job without good communication and resources. Any and all funds raised will go directly to replace our communication system which includes but is not limited to repeaters and radios. Due to having mountainous areas we have to reach, these repeaters are extremely important.  Without the proper equipment for communication, our guys cannot do the job they train for and cannot communicate properly. Even as I type this, every volunteer is still putting in their time up on the mountain to do everything they can to help the community. The winds are also picking back up at the moment and the ground is drying up so we desperately need to be able to raise enough money to help the community here and keep our fireman safe. We are extremely grateful for any contribution made and your support means everything to us. 

Due to the fact that we have to replace the repeater tower, we are being forced to buy new radios to replace the outdated analog frequency to digital frequency.

The breakdown for the cost of the communications equipment:

25 new digital frequency radios - $750 each 

Total cost for radios = $18,750

DIgital Repeater Tower $6,250

TOTAL = $25,000