Most fire districts are comprised of volunteers. They are your neighbors, friends, and family members. The biggest driving factor behind what they do is to give back to their community. The satisfaction of helping those in need is their only reward.
State and Federal training requirements, and personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements are the same for volunteer fire districts as they are for paid departments. The only difference is that they don't normally get paid, and usually don't work a shift at a station.
When a call for service comes in, the volunteers drop whatever they are doing to respond. This means that they leave their jobs, time with family, and holidays to assist people that are having the worst day of their life. When the volunteers leave work, they may lose their wages for the time they are away from work and do not usually get reimbursed. There are occasional grant funds available for reimbursement.
Volunteers face the exact same risks as paid firefighters on incidents to which they respond. Those risks include loss of life due toa a catastrophic accident happening to them at the incident, long term cancer risks from the carcinogens that they are exposed to while trying to save your house and property or trying to keep a vehicle fire from spreading to vegetation. The carcinogens in newer structures and vehicles are tremendous due to the plastics and synthetics in today's building products and have long term and lasting health effects on the people that VOLUNTEER to assist you in your time of need.
Our volunteers cannot be expected to respond to YOUR emergency with substandard and/or expired equipment. They cannot be expected to risk their life and long-term health for you if you are not willing to support them.
As our PPE and equipment expire and we are financially unable to replace it, our response capabilities will diminish as will our volunteer numbers (as they should). We can't risk the lives of the men and women that volunteer to help you and not give them everything they need to do the job as safely as possible.
As our response capabilities dwindle, the ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating will increase. The ISO grading scale is from 1-10, ten being unprotected. As the ISO rating increases your insurance rates will rapidly increase as well. Approximately five years ago the ISO rating for the district was at an 8. With very hard work and the dedication of the volunteers, your ISO rating was decreased to a 5. Without the support from our district patrons, this rating will trend back up towards an 8 or even higher.
We can't guarantee that by supporting the district your insurance rates won't still increase. It is happening to homeowners across the nation, but you can be assured that without the support of the district patrons your insurance rates will rapidly increase as our capabilities rapidly decrease.
With the help of a volunteer grants manager, the district is writing every grant we possibly can. Grants are not a sure bet and
are very competitive. Grants are usually for specific items. We don't always get to request what we need from each grant. So, if we don't receive a grant for PPE and can't afford to replace them, they will go out of service as they expire.
We will continue to write every grant we can to ease the financial burden on our district patrons.
Our volunteers well always do the best they can with what they have, but with current and pending OSHA changes we will be forced to change the way the district operates at emergency incidents.
Please show YOUR volunteers that you support and appreciate what they are sacrificing for you every time they respond to a call for service and think about what could happen if these men and women didn't volunteer for YOU!!
We encourage you to get involved with your local fire district by volunteering, becoming a board member or support staff for the district. Attend the regular board meetings to stay informed about the issues and challenges that fire districts face today.
Please make a difference for these volunteers that give so much to their community. GET INVOLVED!!
If you would like more information about Baker Rural Fire Protection District, or to schedule a tour of the station, please feel free to contact me.
Sean Lee, Fire Chief
Baker Rural Fire Protection District
Office: 541-403-4063
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