Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keri on September 1, 2009 at 12:16pm

Our little town is up in Eastern Washington state. We serve a town of 12,000 residents that also includes a college with about 10,000 students, so when school is in session we have about 23,000 people in our 4 sq mile town. We have one station in the center of town, there has been a lot of talk about a substation on the other side of the railroad tracks because there are so many trains through our town that calls on the opposite side of the tracks can have significant delays and there is an increasing amount of residences and businesses on the opposite side of the tracks. But building another station requires money like everything else and that money just doesn't exist right now. We run about 1300 calls per year, almost 70 percent in our town and the other 30 percent are auto and mutal aide in the county. Last year almost 120 calls were doubled up on top of each other and those are the calls were our lack of manpower is obvisous. We are a combination dept with 9 career guys, 6 college residents (pull shifts with career guys, but go to school and get paid like volunteers), and a handful of volunteers that we can't really count on. We also have a chief and secretary. We have five bays housing our rigs: medic one (2008 Ford F-350, Short Box Crew Cab 4x4, BLS medical equipment), brush one (2008 F-550 Super Duty Crew cab 4x4, 400 Gallons of Water, 18 hp waterous gear driven high pressure pump, Carries 10 gallons of class A foam, with foam inductor system), engine one (1995 Central States pumper , 500 gallons of water, 1500 gpm pump, BLS medical equipment, Haz-Mat equipment, extrication equipment), pumper-ladder one ( 2005 Spartan Gladiator, 109’ Aerial Ladder, 1500 GPM pump, 300 gallon water tank, BLS medical equipment, Pumper Ladder One was purchased using funds from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program in 2003. The price tag was well over a half million dollars, the city paid only 10% of the cost.), command one (2004 Chevy Colorado, Command One was purchased using funds from Washington Wildland Fire Assistance Grant Program in 2004), engine 2 (1985 GMC Top Kick pumper, 500 Gallons of water, 1000 gpm pump, BLS medical equipment), and brush 2 (1997 Ford F-250, 250 Gallons of Water, This unit was purchased using funds from Washington Wildland Fire Assistance Grant Program in 2003). Brush 2 and Engine 2 are rarely used for anything other than state mobs and taxises. Engine 1 is our primary response rig that can do just about everything we need. This last year the city finally agreed to a 2 man minimum, the only problem is two guys can't do a lot to fight a structure fire by themselves or deal with a full arrest when additional help is at least 15 minutes out. We would like to see our staffing increase in the future, probably with more career guys and residents and some day in the future a second station.

Permalink Reply by David "slick" Rivers on September 3, 2009 at 1:51am

We are located in Chesterfield Co. In South Carolina...about 1 1/2 hours south of Charlotte NC...Our district consists of 194 sq. miles and we operate 1 main station and 2 satellite stations....Newest truck is a 2009 kenworth built by FES out of Sumter SC and it is a tanker/pumper we bought with the AFG grant in 2007..And the oldest is a 1972 Chevy pumper. We have 4 pumpers and 4 tankers and a brush unit and equipment truck...

Permalink Reply by jared m snyder on September 18, 2009 at 11:20am

I don't know how some people classify "small towns" but my town, Moab, Utah, has about 5,000 yr round residents. We grow to 15, 0000 to 20,000 throughout the tourist season. We actually have two stations now, and roughly 30-40 volunteer firefighters. I know this may be a huge department in comparison to other small towns throughout the nation, but I was raised in a town of about 75,000 who just recently put in a third station, Gilroy Fire Department, Gilroy, Ca. My career, however started in San Juan Bautista, Ca, back in 1996... We had 3 engines at the time, and a water tender. The closest big town to Gilroy, is San Jose, with close to a million people, and i don't even know how many stations.... I'm proud to serve in a small town department, where it seems to mean more to the residents, what us firefighters do for them...

Permalink Reply by meagen on September 26, 2009 at 10:15pm

our dept has three stations to it the smallest one the one i am a member of has one bay and it has two trucks a tanker and a pumper

Permalink Reply by Rich Quilling on September 29, 2009 at 8:54am

our satition has 43 members in the south east part of wisconsin

Permalink Reply by Daniel T. Musgrave on October 18, 2009 at 1:46pm

We have 8 bays, 2 pumpers, 1 quick response truck, 1 emergancy response truck with all extrication, rope rescue, air pack seating for 6, this is our newest and our pride and joy. aWE HAVE A 4000 gallon tender. and 3 ambulances and the county dive team also works out of out station.

Permalink Reply by James Higley on October 21, 2009 at 2:45pm

we run out of one station that consists of 8 bays. we run 2 engines, 2 tankers, 2 ALS ambulances, a BLS/upgradeable ALS heavy rescue, a grass rig, command vechicle, and a 100' straight stick which we are selling to make room for a 100' tower.

Permalink Reply by Robert Grove on October 22, 2009 at 1:28pm

I know of a fire company thats small and no ones ever heard of the town(Rossiter Pennslyvania). its rossiter vol fire dept, they have 20 members 7 active members and five trucks. 1 1995 frightliner fl-70 1250gpm pump 1000 gallon tank (engine 343), 1996 frieghtliner fl-70 1800 gallon tanker(Tanker 342),2005 gmc dakota mini pumper/rescue(Engine 341) 1995 dodge ram brushtruck (brush 345) 1985 FMC roughneck 1250gpm pump 500 gallon tank(old engine 341)

Permalink Reply by Bryan Phillips on July 9, 2010 at 9:09pm

In Salmo we have the Fire Hall that holds 2 Engines, and a fast attack truck. Then at the Village shop we have a Tender and a Rescue van. We are 24 members strong.

Permalink Reply by Andrew J Economedes on July 10, 2010 at 6:14pm

Ponder VFD Ponder Tx. Pop. appx 1100, 18 members, 2 tankers, 1 engine, 2 brush trucks 1 EMS vehicle. Cover 68 sq miles make about 350 calls a year. Always on the look out for new members but small town and most work out of town. Use LOTS of mutual aid.

Permalink Reply by Ringold15 on July 11, 2010 at 1:52am

i live in ringold(clearly,lol) very small town our pride and joy is our fire dept. 6 about to be 7 trucks ( we are currently building a tanker) our nicest truck would be our 1986 E-one cafs its amazing we love it , then we have a 1996 ford l8000 2500 gal. tanker, a 1984 chevy 3/4 ton brush truck, a 1979 dodge power wagon rescue truck, a 1990 am general (the soon to be tanker) 2500 gal, a 2003 chiefs/tack truck, and a 25 fire fighter roll

Permalink Reply by TOMMY on July 12, 2010 at 3:42pm

ISO CLASS THREE... YES... I SAID ISO CLASS THREE ALL VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENT WITHOUT PAID PERSONNEL. SMALL TOWN .. 4.5 SQUARE MILES. 2950 PEOPLE. ONE STATION, WE BUILT IT... EIGHT BAYS. FIVE ENGINES (THREE CUSTOMS). VERY SMALL 103,000 DOLLAR BUDGET. BIG BANG FOR THE TAXPAYER BUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. 43 MEMBERS... 28 VERY ACTIVE. ONLY RUN 60 OR LESS CALLS PER YEAR... NO EMS.. JUST THE FIRE STUFF.

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