Everyone seemed to agree, it's pretty lowdown stealing gear from the fire department. Even so, it wasn't anger that motivated Mike Dalby to donate $1,500 to replace it, but gratitude.
Dalby has been a firefighter in Lubbock for about nine years and one night he was watching the local news. Like many others, he learned that someone had stolen a Snyder volunteer firefighter's protective clothing from the back of his truck while the man was fighting a grass fire.
"We had a vehicle with mechanical problems start about seven grass fires simultaneously on U.S. 84 north of Snyder," Snyder Fire Chief Perry Westmoreland said. "So we were trying to put them out as we came to them."
The Snyder Fire Department is a mix of volunteer and paid staff. David Kruse is one of those volunteers and like every time for at least a decade, answered his call to duty by throwing his gear in the back of his pickup and following the smoke.
Kruse donned his lighter wildland firefighting outfit. His bulkier turnout gear for fighting structure fires stayed in the oversized zippered bag in the bed of his truck, which he parked along the highway.