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Fire
district looking
for a few, good firefighters
“We’re
certainly not critical yet but we could get to that point,” said
fire chief Bill Skinner.
The local
fire department has the financial resources to buy a new engine
and build a new building but Skinner is concerned that if the
current trend continues there won’t be anyone
to use them.
With mounting
requirements for volunteer firefighters Skinner said he has
seen fewer volunteers, and more and more of those the department
has are there for training and experience and are in the
market for a full-time paid position elsewhere.
There are
currently 22 volunteers on the department’s roster,
and Skinner said approximately half of those regularly
respond to calls. “It used to be we’d have eight
people show up, now we get more like four,” when firefighters
are called to an emergency, Skinner said.
Of current
volunteers, 13 are Canadians. “Eight of those
are actively looking for jobs in the fire service,” Skinner
said. Of the nine U.S. volunteers, two are often absent
for professional reasons, one has indicated he may
not be able to continue as a volunteer and another
is waiting to retire, “but he’s
staying because of our numbers,” Skinner said. “On
the U.S. side it’s really pretty slim.’
Skinner
acknowledges the amount of training needed for someone
with no previous fire experience to become a volunteer
can be a deterrent for community members with jobs
and families. New firefighters attend county recruit
academy near Bellingham for three months, Tuesday
and Thursday evenings and Saturdays, for 202 hours of initial
training.
Training
as an emergency medical technician takes a similar commitment
to 185 hours of training. Department members also attend weekly
department training nights and duty days.
Besides
valuable training and the personal satisfaction of service,
volunteers are paid a per-call stipend and are reimbursed for
any expenses incurred.
In the mid
1990s and again in 2002 department membership was at a healthy
level, close to 30, and Skinner would like public input on
how to get participation in the department back to those levels. “I would really like
to have 20 active volunteers since Monday to Friday we would
probably only be able to muster eight to ten,” Skinner
said. To volunteer or for ideas on how to encourage participation
call 945-FIRE.
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