These Amish Firefighters Ride Tractors to Calls — and Saved $600,000 Building Their Own Station

The distinctive buggy logo on a New Marion, Indiana Volunteer Fire Department fire truck. Photo: Cheryl Damon-Greiner/Eagle Country Online

When a call comes into Ripley County, Indiana 911 and New Marion Volunteer Fire Department responds, the scene that follows isn’t one you’d see at most departments.

Amish firefighters arrive from the surrounding countryside — on tractors. Their non-Amish crewmates climb into the fire vehicles and drive. Then everyone pulls on the same gear, follows the same protocols, and goes to work side-by-side. Different lifestyles, but one shared purpose.

We’ve covered Amish volunteer fire departments often before — those in Lancaster County in particular, where the local Amish and Mennonite population contribute significantly to their local volunteer crews. And the annual mud sales regularly bring that fact to light.

But that’s not the only community where they’re active – as we’ve seen in communities in New York and Virginia.

Cheryl Damon-Greine of Eagle Country Online has delivered a very interesting inside look at Amish firefighters in the Ripley County community, one that was founded in 2008 and has over 200 Amish residents.

These sorts of stories do a great job of highlighting how Amish communities find practical ways to serve neighbors without abandoning what makes them who they are.

And this group, just going by surnames (the fire chief is named Ben Smoker, and assistant chief is Levi Beiler), seem to have Lancaster County heritage. Which would make sense, seeing them carrying their volunteer firefighting tradition to another of their spin-off settlements.

In this case, half the New Marion crew is Amish. They of course aren’t driving the fire trucks, but everything else they do is the same, as noted by Damon-Greine:

For New Marion’s members, Amish and English alike, training is where differences fade. Everyone learns the same skills, wears the same protective gear, and follows the same safety rules, because fire and medical emergencies don’t care where you come from.

These volunteers recently used their training to save the life of a fellow member of their team when he suffered a massive heart attack at home. Emergency room personnel said that the level of response in such a rural area was “miraculous”.

The Amish here aren’t all “just” firefighters – there are certified EMTs among them. And while in some Amish communities, local fire volunteers are using electric scooters to get to the station for fire calls, as noted above, in this community they drive tractors in to the station.

In most Amish communities, tractors are not used in the fields, though they may be used for more limited purposes. It seems here that getting to volunteer fire calls is one of those sanctioned tasks. It’s possible they use the scooters as well, but that’s not mentioned.

Saving The Department Hundreds of Thousands

Not only is the Amish section of the crew providing firefighting and EMT duties, they also came up big when the department needed a new station.

As we’ve seen in other examples lately, generally the Amish are about common-sense, practical, get-it done solutions. And so it was with the idea they presented – and executed:

Several years ago, Amish firefighters approached then-Chief Charlie Meisberger with an offer that still feels almost unbelievable: they would provide the labor to build an updated firehouse.

The old station was so tight that the department had to move trucks out just so members could gather inside for meetings.

After the offer was accepted, the project moved quickly. Walls, trusses, roof, and concrete floor were worked on together, until a new building stood, large enough to accommodate the department.

Thanks at least in part to their donated labor, they were able to deliver hundreds of thousands in savings:

The price tag for a project like that had been estimated at more than $800,000, well out of reach for a small volunteer department. With free labor, the cost dropped to about a quarter of that.

From $800,000, to about $200,000. That’s pretty massive value right there.

The article makes another good, related point. With gear for a single firefighter costing thousands of dollars, fundraising is “part of the job description”, as Damon-Greine writes.

Besides the standard pancake breakfasts and other benefit events, Smoker and Beiler have come up with a way to use their building skills to boost the department’s resources. They do what’s described as “short construction projects” for businesses and local residents in exchange for donations.

It’s pretty impressive across-the-board, and inspiring. Now, not every Amish community is involved in civic life in such a way. In fact, while they’re not the only ones involved in volunteer fire departments, the tradition is, from all I’ve seen, definitely strongest in the Lancaster Amish and their “diaspora”.

As this Indiana example shows, the Amish members of the crew are heavily invested in helping keeping their communities safe and their department running as well as it can be. And hats off to them for it.