Culver Firefighter Hurt Battling early morning blaze

INDIANA FIREFIGHTER FALLS FROM ROOF
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - Culver , IN - A small Michiana fire department, short on volunteers, is even shorter tonight. A veteran member of the Culver Union Township fire department was hurt battling an early morning blaze. The fire broke out around 3:45 this morning in Southwest Marshall County on Union Road. The firefighter that was injured slipped off a two story home and landed on the grown head first.

Amazingly, he has only bumps and bruises.

He is expected to be out of commission while recovering.

That hurts the volunteer department in Culver .

Chief Lance Overmyer is counting assistant Chief Mike Grover down for the count.

"He fell from right around there,” he said, pointing to the roof top. “And came down and landed right on his back and his head."

The injury happened Tuesday around 3:45 in the morning while the Culver fire department and three other fire departments were fighting a fire sparked by lightening at this farmhouse.

"He's not going to be working for a while, he hurt his arm, his sho ulder," Overmyer said

Although it will not debilitate the department, it will not help matters either with their dwindling number of volunteers and the diffic ulty to find younger men or women to come forward.

"They seem to want to go home and spend more time with their kids, or their wife or whatever, it's different now than what it was 25 to 30 years ago," Overmyer explained.

When people like himself looked at volunteering as being an honor instead of perhaps something else.

The Culver Union Township Fire Department usually requires all volunteers to live inside the township, due to response time.

But the Chief says he is willing to accept applications from people in surrounding townships.

All you have to do is stop by the fire department in Culver for more information. - firefighterclosecalls. com/fullstory.php?35863