Daytime Staffing

Of the volunteer departments represented here, how many are having problems providing adequate staffing for daytime responses? For example, if your department were to have a working house fire, what length of time would it take to assemble enough firefighters to deal with the blaze?

Lou

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Permalink Reply by kris on March 13, 2009 at 12:43pm

depends on what time of day and about how far people are away.

we had one couple months back and the fire was well involved by the time we was paged for mutual aid i believe our first engine left within 5 minutes to 10 minutes and then our command vehicle carried the people who could fit into the engine about 10 minutes after a officer arrived.

Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on March 13, 2009 at 5:11pm

This is not a probleme for us during the day time. It is a probleme for us 24/7. If not for mutuail aid around here NOTHING would be saved. We have aprox 25 ppl on roster and lucky if 3 show up for anything.

Permalink Reply by Larry Humphreys on March 14, 2009 at 8:30am

I think this has always been an issue with volunteer departments. Do you run rescue as well? If so this can complicate matters even further. I am on two different departments that handle the problem in different ways. One department has several members that are self employed, doing farming, construction, tool & die... and have several that work in town and are able to leave their employer for calls. That takes a bit of PR work from the chief, but most usually see the benefit of it for the community. The other department I am on is in a very small town, and most of the members work in surrounding towns, making it hard for them to be available. There are a few retired individuals who are willing to throw on a pack and go in if needed, but make a better contribution running the truck or tanking water. These veterans are SO important, and have more dedication than many new members. Another thing the department did was put two of the village maintenence crew guys on, assuring that there will be at least two that are good to go at nearly any time. Also we have a few men who work 2nd or 3rd shift, and they are familiar faces at day-time calls. The weren't necessarily recruited, I don't think, but just our good fortune to have.

LH.

Permalink Reply by Edward Stephens on March 15, 2009 at 1:53am

surprising right now we are doing real good on that situation.

Permalink Reply by Edward Stephens on March 15, 2009 at 1:55am

We also have mutual aid and mutial aid helps out alot

Permalink Reply by Lou Angeli on March 15, 2009 at 1:55am

Ed -- share the secret -- Lou

Permalink Reply by Tim Wood on March 19, 2009 at 9:23pm

Our manpower during the day is not to bad right nowi have several ff that are laid off bad for them good for daytime response. Also have some ff on midnights and and guys that can respond from work

Permalink Reply by Mark Klaene on March 19, 2009 at 11:31pm

we rely on some of our retirees and a couple folks including my AC that work in district with a very understanding boss. He doesn't get off with pay and ends up working long hours to make up the run time but it works . (great having dedicated people) . NM has a law protecting volunteers from losing their job due t o responding but I would bet a good employer will find away around the law. Fortunately not an issue for us.

with this I can staff 2 engines before calling for mutual aid (20 minutes out)

Should would love 3-4 more fire fighters and another EMT though

Permalink Reply by Greg Harris on March 21, 2009 at 2:30pm

We do pretty well during the day. The only time we have problems is from about 8 to 11 am. If everybody's home and comes to the station, we have crews for three pieces who live right in town, which is good considering our population is about 400.

Permalink Reply by paul michael komandt on April 21, 2009 at 4:48pm

We have had this problem for the last 25 years and since then we have been running auto mutual aid with the neighboring department since then. We both run ems as well and see 380 avg calls a year. Auto aid is dispatched 6AM->6PM Monday to Friday for all calls, and 24/7 for and possible structure fire. Back in the day we got laughed at for "not being able to handle our own calls". All those Departments are now getting 4 or 5 departments auto aid for poss. structure fires. I guess we started something good. Only once in the past year have we not been able to transport with us and autoaid.

Permalink Reply by Robert Stomber on April 27, 2009 at 9:58pm

Just last year we want to district alarm during the day to get more people to show up. Even with 3 to 4 fire departments being called we might get two to three engines showing up with two or three people on them. Thank to our other fire districts that come to our aid when we need them. Even at night we are starting to have prombles so up.

Permalink Reply by chris r brannon on May 20, 2009 at 1:29pm