The Union County Fire and Rescue Squad’s beginnings were humble back in 1959 — members used an old panel truck as their emergency vehicle and had to borrow a boat to search for a drowning victim.

Things are a lot different today. The squad stays up to date with the most modern equipment it can afford and the 55 members are trained in the latest emergency and rescue techniques. One member is a physician, Dr. John Flood. Eight are emergency medical technicians or higher. Nineteen are First Responders, four are involved in an EMT class and 26 are certified firefighters.

In conjunction with its 50th anniversary, the squad is holding its annual fund-raiser. In the past, a family portrait was offered in exchange for a donation. Chief J.D. McCarley said this year, the portrait won’t be offered and all donations will go straight to the rescue squad. Letters requesting a donation recently went out to 12,000 Union County addresses.

“We spend untold hours training and all of our people are volunteers,” McCarley said. “When you do something for the rescue squad, you are helping us get advanced training and to replace equipment.”

The rescue squad originally was chartered as the Union Fire Department Emergency Unit. J.W. “Jake” Sullivan was the president, Dr. Palmer Fant was vice president and E.H. Hughes was secretary/treasurer. Directors were Charlie Vaughan, J.W. Cooper Jr., John Putnam, T.J. Stehle, Walter Vanderford and Ray Rhymer.

Vaughan, a longtime volunteer with the City of Union Fire Department and a retired deputy state fire marshal, said the men took $800 from the firemen’s fund and purchased a panel truck from Eagle Grocery and some equipment.

“We felt like having more cars and more wrecks, we needed a rescue squad,” Vaughan said. “There was nothing in town to help someone in an accident. Ambulances from the funeral home would go out, pick someone up and take them to the hospital, but they didn’t offer much treatment.”

At first the squad had no boat and had to borrow a boat or use a water craft belonging to a member to search for a drowning victim. The Union Junior Charity League later donated a boat to the squad.

Vanderford, who now is deceased, said in a 1999 interview that it initially was hard to get the squad organized because people were hesitant to donate money. He said Hughes, who was affiliated with the United Way, was able to secure funding for the squad. Fred Tribble, who was then president of Lockhart Power, arranged for members to receive first aid training.

“Mr. Tribble was interested in safety and he got the best doctors out of Greenville to come down here two or three nights,” Vanderford remembered. “They taught us about burns, broken bones and heart attacks.”

The late Bobby Sprouse, former Union fire chief and a member of the squad for 35 years, said in a 1999 interview that the first truck purchased for the squad was already worn out when members got it.

“I remember one time I was driving it to Carlisle — a patrolman had wrecked and overturned and his car was supposedly on fire,” Sprouse said. “Something behind me kept blinking its lights wanting to get by. It was the ambulance. The truck wouldn’t do but about 50 miles per hour.”

Sprouse said when he got back to Union, he told Sullivan the squad needed a new truck.

“I told Jake that if we were going to have a rescue squad, we had to have a new truck because one of us was going to get killed driving the one we had. WBCU gave us air time and we had a ‘Save the Truck’ day. Merchants and citizens contributed more than we needed for the truck and we used the rest to buy equipment. I was surprised at the amount of money we collected. But, that’s Union for you. They will help you when you need it.”

Vaughan said the new rescue truck had a siren and modern light bar. the lights made a figure-eight pattern and the electronic siren made a different sound compared to the wind-up sirens people in Union were accustomed to. This frightened one woman in the Walker Heights-North Pinckney Street area.

“She thought it was something from outer space,” Vaughan said. “I guess it was the first light bar in Union.”

Over the years, the squad has responded to some unusual calls, including one of the first on the Hawkins Road where a house that had been jacked up for repairs fell on a worker. Apart from drownings and vehicle accidents, the squad also has been called to train wrecks, including one in Lockhart when a flood washed away the tracks and caused an engine to derail, pinning a worker inside.

While he was a member of the rescue squad, James “Pap” Valentine made some of the tools and other items the squad used, including brackets to hold equipment and lights in place and a “can opener” to cut open wrecked cars.

“That was before the ‘Jaws of Life,’ said Valentine, who was a member of the squad from its inception until 1987. “I saw one on a TV program and used scrap metal at work to make it. It looked like an old-fashioned can opener — it was four or five feet long, a rod with a spike.”

Valentine said he worked on his rescue squad tools at Torrington after his work day was over. He also fashioned, from a picture another man showed him in a magazine, a pulley apparatus used to lower people from high places.

Valentine said he enjoyed his years on the rescue squad.

“Not seeing people trapped, but I just enjoyed being able to help someone,” he said.

Later, a Porter power tool, a hand-pumped rescue tool and an A-Jax air chisel, which ran off compressed air bottles, were used in rescues.

Sprouse said Torrington was good to allow Valentine to use scrap metal and work on tools for the squad at the plant, and company officials also were understanding when there was an emergency call.

“We had several men who worked out there, including Pap and Mickey Cranford, and if there was a rescue or fire call, they would let them off work to come and help us or go to the station to stand by,” Sprouse said. “They have always been good to the fire department and the rescue squad.”

The squad obtained its first Jaws of Life in 1980.

In 2003 the rescue squad’s name was changed to the Union County Fire and Rescue Squad to allow members to assist the fire service.

McCarley said the squad operates four rescue trucks, two boats, a dive trailer and an amphibious vehicle out of two stations in Monarch and Buffalo.

“We respond to all vehicle accidents with entrapment to provide extrication and back up Union county EMS on all serious medical calls,” McCarley said. “A used ambulance was recently purchased for several reasons, the first being to assist Union County EMS when they are backed up.”

The need for the ambulance was emphasized in December when Medic 5, the ambulance that operates out of the Jonesville EMS station, wrecked and overturned on the Kelly Road while transporting a patient. For a period of time, all of Union County’s ambulances were in use.

McCarley said another reason for purchasing the ambulance was to make the squad eligible for vehicle and equipment grants.

“An agreement was made with the Wallace Thomson Hospital System where in we purchase the ambulance and staff it, the hospital will supply the needed equipment and see that it is marked and lettered,” McCarley said. “This should prove to be a win-win situation for both organizations.”

The rescue squad also responds to all lost person calls and performs search and rescue missions.

“We do this by using several personally owned ATVs and an ARGO,” McCarley said. “We recently entered into an agreement with Sheriff David Taylor for the following: On search and rescue missions the sheriff’s office will provide two ATVs and manpower.”

The sheriff’s office also recently sent two deputies — Kevin Smith and Tim Gaston — for search and rescue training.

The squad responds to all water rescue and drowning calls. The squad has 11 certified divers, two boats and a dive trailer.

The squad recently started responding to assist the City of Union Fire Department and county fire departments on major fire scenes.

“We provide medical rehabilitation, manpower and RIT teams,” McCarley said. “An RIT— Rapid Intervention Team — is typically a two- or four-man team whose only job is to stand by in case a firefighter goes down and needs rescuing.”

Because all members are volunteers, McCarley said the squad had tried to plan ahead in case of a major disaster such as train derailment, plane crash, hazardous material spill, tornado or flood.

“Some of these events would most certainly force us to call for out of county assistance,” he said. “For that reason, we have entered into a mutual aid agreement with Newberry County Rescue Squad and at this time are discussing this option with the Fairfield County Rescue Squad.”

In the future, the squad would like to form a hazardous materials team

The Union County Fire and Rescue Squad responded to 428 calls in 2008. Around 7,000 volunteer hours were donated. It upgraded three of its four AED’s (defibrillators) with the help of Union County EMS. It continued the county’s only EMT program as a joint venture with EMS.. It acquired a dive team trailer and additional equipment to equip eight divers.

In cooperation with the sheriff’s office, it acquired a utility trailer to transport its ARGO — amphibious vehicle.

McCarley thanked other area fire departments, Union County EMS, city and county councils, Supervisor Donnie Betenbaugh, Sheriff David Taylor and Union Public Safety Department Chief Sam White for their cooperation with the department.

“We appreciate everyone’s support,” he said.