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Station Curfew Placed on Kentucky Volunteers
RACELAND, Ky. - Volunteer firefighters in the eastern Kentucky city of Raceland are blazing angry about a curfew at their fire hall.
The Independent in Ashland reported a number of fire brigade members came to a Tuesday night City Council meeting in Raceland, but council members took no action to lift the curfew they imposed a week ago.
The curfew prohibits anyone from being at the fire station after 11 p.m.
Councilman Tom Cumpton said council members were concerned there was "too much loafing" going on late at night and there were reports young people hung out there well beyond when they should be in bed.
Deputy Fire Chief Chuck Burks said the curfew hurts the department's morale.
Lt. Chris Wages said it interferes with equipment maintenance.
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Information from: The Independent, http://www.dailyindependent.com
Related
Daily Independent: Curfew angers firefighters
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Independent in Ashland reported a number of fire brigade members came to a Tuesday night City Council meeting in Raceland, but council members took no action to lift the curfew they imposed a week ago.
The curfew prohibits anyone from being at the fire station after 11 p.m.
Councilman Tom Cumpton said council members were concerned there was "too much loafing" going on late at night and there were reports young people hung out there well beyond when they should be in bed.
Deputy Fire Chief Chuck Burks said the curfew hurts the department's morale.
Lt. Chris Wages said it interferes with equipment maintenance.
___
Information from: The Independent, http://www.dailyindependent.com
Related
Daily Independent: Curfew angers firefighters
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steven on
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It's not that bad. We have a curfew, 11 p.m. Generally it's stuck too. We have a career firefighter who lives in the hall when he's on duty and it's out of respect for him. Everyone needs to sleep, even firefighters.
If there's a call we can be there. After a fire call we usually hang out for a while as we put everything back in service and clean up. We'll do what firefighters do until everyone gets tired of talking or the paid guy wants to go to bed and we're all polite about it.
It's up to the paid staff to say what should be done after 2300 in most situations. Often, when we have a bad night of storms for example, the paid man wants other members around to help out on calls, faster response if you have a crew napping or doing crosswords in the day room when the fire phone rings.
The big key is that the fire hall is NOT a club house. There are aspects of that of course, but the fire hall and most everything in it is usually property of a municipality or fire district. You don't own it except to say you are a taxpayer and you share ownership with a LOT of people who are not firefighters.
You have to respect the hall and what's inside of it.
We also have a policy regarding alcohol in the fire hall and on the grounds. Each company has their own parlor room. that's where the alcohol is to be if someone wants a drink. There's also a meeting/banquet room in the basement where alcoholic beverages may be consumed.
Alcohol is not allowed anywhere on the first floor (day room, offices, radio room, truck room, career staff bunks, etc.) and ONLY allowed in the back of the fire hall in a covered picnic area and bbq pit.
We all respect that. There are good reasons for it and NO ONE responds to a call if they've had a drink, even that first sip.
Curfew is from 2300 to 0700. The only reason a volunteer member should be in the hall during that time is if there is a call, after a call or if the career firefighter on duty says so. ANd no one has any problems with it.
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Oh yea, and who the hell does "equipment maintenance" at 0100 hrs in a fire hall???
Granted, if you get back from a call and something's broke and easily fixed, you take ten minutes to do it. That's not an excuse to have six guys hanging out at the hall shooting the shit...
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Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on
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Sounds like you all came up with a mature, proactive way to have your cake and eat it too. So long as you have expectations set and everyone does the mature thing (the right thing) and respects each others' needs, it should go fine.
As far as that "equipment maintenance" claim goes, we have a "rule of thumb" that also applies to the public we deal with: "Nothing good is going on after midnight." Firefighters hanging around a station at that time in the morning are probably up to no good.
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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Steven,
You wrote, "The big key is that the fire hall is NOT a club house" and I agree with that. Socailizing while working is acceptable with a little hang time after that. My VFD does not allow any alcohol in any area of the property. If it did then it would be a "club house" let alone create a liability that would be not be easy to control. IMHO TCSS
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And it usually does. Works very well. Everybody knows the rules, the new people get educated quickly on them, and we all watch each other's backs and politely step in when someone slips. Common courtesy and respect can go a long way.
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A bunking policy is a different set of rules...
We've been working on one for a while now and our sticking points revolve around how to physically separate the career staff (they have their own space and we all want to respect it) but keep everyone on the same floor for easy access to the truck room. There are logistical concerns and some minor policy sticking points.
Basically you would sign up for the bunking area and are expected to be there and respond to EVERY call during your shift.
The paid staff don't want a "free room and board" program and the volunteers want to be able to beef up how we respond to calls, especially when it's a busy night or the paid ambulance service is off-line and we have to transport EMS for the area (we go mutual aid for surrounding departments when the ambulance service is out of service.)
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Permalink Reply by Scott Baublitz on
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I am with a 100% volunteer department, we have people from all walks of life (some work nights and that is when they volunteer) who are members with the department. If my department had a "cerfew" it would hurt everyone. I am proud to say that we DO NOT have any problems from our younger firefighters or any senior ones for that matter. The guys in my department are very professional, they treat the department like a paid job. The reason....They are treated like professionals, trained to be professional, and professionalism is the standard.
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Permalink Reply by NOVAFireman on
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Wow. I'm really suprised there are places out there that have curfews for their vollies. All of the VFD's in my neck of the world have bunkrooms, and vollies pulling duty over night.
With high call volumes and demand, home response can't cut it here.
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Permalink Reply by justin lee burch on
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thats not right
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Permalink Reply by Marvin Hawk on
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Can't be in the fire house after 2300. Hmmm so who answers the calls after 2300 the town board? I can just imagine how much the local cops are gonna like being the rat patrol. Lot of luck getting some help from the fire police next time you need a road closed.
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