Alba · Antrim County · Michigan
Serving Star Township since 2002.
Twenty-six neighbors who volunteer, one station, and a whole township of northern-Michigan woods, lakes, and back roads to look after. Year round.
The almanac, opened
Star Township Fire & Rescue answers the call for Star Township and the village of Alba, in Antrim County. It is up-north country: two-lane roads through the pines, snow that measures in feet, and lakes the summer folks come back for. A department this size in a place like this is not a building you drive past. It is your neighbor, your kid's coach, and the truck that shows up when the pager goes off at two in the morning.
Since 2002 the department has run out of a single station on volunteer hours. The trucks are ready for mud season and for January alike, and a group of medically-trained members answers first when the emergency is a person, not a fire.
The two brightest days on the department calendar
A volunteer department earns its place the other three hundred and sixty-three days a year. These two are when the town shows up to say it back. Flip the almanac between them.
Last Saturday of July
The last Saturday of July, the department throws the party the whole township circles on the calendar. It is the classic small-town field day: the trucks are out, the food is on, and the people the crew answers for get to shake their hands in daylight instead of at a bad moment.
Every March
Come March, the station opens its doors while the snow is still on the ground. Neighbors walk through the bay, meet the volunteers, look the apparatus over up close, and see exactly who and what is coming when they dial 911.
The inventory, as an almanac keeps it
Rural up-north firefighting means water you carry in and terrain a highway truck cannot reach. The apparatus roster is built for both.
Built for a place with four hard seasons
Most departments do not keep sleds in the bay. A township of snow country and back-lot trails does. The same crew that pulls hose in July breaks trail in January.
Two rescue sleds and an ATV mean a person in trouble across deep snow or down an unplowed two-track is still a person the department can reach.
A Medical First Responder rig staffed by 15 medically-trained members answers the calls that are about a heartbeat, not a hydrant. Often first on scene in a rural county.
The people behind the pager
Every name on the roster does this on their own time. Fire Chief Pete Hoogerhyde Jr. leads a department of 26 that trains, maintains the trucks, and turns out for a township that counts on exactly them.
How to reach the department
For non-emergency questions, station business, or to hear about the next open house or field day, the department uses these public channels.
Event notices, open-house and field-day dates, community updates.