I was surfing the internet tonight and I happened across this article. After reading it, it would appear there is some redirection needed in their county. Quotes like why am I here, why do I need to train, this training is useless, who needs FEMA... Unbelievable. I can understand being fristrated but some of the commmentary is not only NOT professional, it sure isn't a way to gather more support through getting new members. Let me know what you think.



BY KENNETH HEARD
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
AMAGON - Last month, when a Jackson County dispatcher paged firefighters from five rural volunteer fire departments to battle a large blazing gasoline container in Tupelo, no one showed up.
Not one firefighter, said Dan Ivy, the director of the county's Office of Emergency Services.
Finally, after a second page, a handful of volunteers from Richwood, some 25 miles to the north, responded.
"It was an agricultural fuel tank that time," Ivy said. "It could be a house the next time." In the world of firefighting, where time is a key element, response times are drastically lengthening because of an inability to recruit new, younger volunteers in southern Jackson County. The potential for new blood in the rural fire departments has dwindled because of changes in culture, the workplace, population location and the additional training required to become a volunteer firefighter.
"We're getting too dang old," said Richwood Volunteer Fire Chief Wayne Davis. "We've only got three people who are able to really, physically fight fires. But we can't get anyone else to join." Among the five departments that cover the southern half of Jackson County - Richwood Volunteer Fire Department in Amagon, Eight-Mile in Beedeville, R&I about five miles south of Newport, Erwin just east of Newport and Weldon southeast of Newport - only 15 or 16 volunteers are considered "dependable, " Ivy said, meaning they respond to a vast majority of the fires to which they are paged.
In some parts of the state, fire departments keep a waiting list of volunteers eager to join. Marion's department in Crittenden County has a long list and volunteers sometimes wait for months before joining the department, said Kevin McMasters, president of the Arkansas Fire Fighters Association.
But in rural southern Jackson County, where farming is a source of employment, people aren't as apt to drop their work and immediately run to fires. Also, McMasters said, agricultural communities often suffer because farmers live 20 miles or more away from where they farm.
"I got into it because I wanted to help," said Jennifer Nosler, who joined the Eight-Mile Volunteer Fire Department in early August. "But it's a lot of work staying with it." There's also the danger involved in firefighting, and the continual need for training that keeps potential volunteers away, McMasters said.
Under Arkansas Act 822 of 1991, volunteer are required to take 32 hours of structural firefighting instruction and eight hours of wildfire training. They are also required to take 24 hours additional training yearly. Volunteers oppose the more specified training that doesn't apply to Jackson County, Chief Davis said.
"We shut our combines down and get off our tractors to go to school and learn how to put fires out," Davis said. "We don't need to learn how to defuse a bomb. The Homeland Security stuff they're teaching didn't mean anything to us. They are keeping the thumb on all us rinky-dink fire departments. " As a result of the agriculture fuel tank fire, Ivy met with volunteers twice last month to discuss forming an "automatic aid" agreement between all departments. Under Ivy's proposal, all five southern Jackson County fire departments would be dispatched to every fire within their range.
"The proposal had them all working together on every structure fire," Ivy said.
Fire chiefs, though, refused to merge, saying they would go if "asked," but not if "mandated." "Automatic, mandated aid won't work here," said Tony Johnson, chief of the Eight-Mile Volunteer Fire Department. "That's where we start losing more people. No volunteer needs to be told what to do." Fire officials also expressed concern over fuel expenses in driving some 25 miles to fight fires.
"We've been bit in the butt before," said Richwood volunteer firefighter Tim Snyder. "We'll pay the $3 a gallon for gas and show up somewhere only to hear [firefighters] say, `What are you doing here?' That hurts. We can help them put the fire out, but they want us to turn around. That stings a bit, especially after paying for that gas." Davis said his firefighters won't go to Tupelo to assist in fires. "Forget that. To us, that doesn't make sense. By the time we'd get there, it's burned up anyway.
"If they [a community] need a fire department to come to them, they need to get their own," he said. "We're not here to protect the entire county." Davis' son, Steve Davis, a volunteer with Richwood's department, agreed.
"When I joined 15 years ago, it was to help my community," he said. "We had separate departments and that gave our communities identities. It's the only way this will work. We can't work together as one department.
"I could build a 1,500-gallon truck and take care of my area," he added. "I don't need Act 833. I don't need FEMA. I can take care of my own little world." For now, the five southern Jackson County fire departments will continue covering their own areas and responding to fires outside their districts if asked, Ivy said.
"It's going to get worse," Ivy said of the situation. "If we could have gotten the [five] departments responding at the same time, we can save a house sometime. If not, I see the entire southern end of Jackson County burning up eventually."