During a February meeting of the Surry County Board of County Commissioners, the county was presented with a new concept that would add paid firefighters to some volunteer fire houses around the county to bolster their ranks and improve response times.
There has been a growing need to find a new way to staff the fire houses around the county as firefighters are aging out of their service years and fewer are filing in to fill their ranks as volunteerism has declined across the nation. Jonathan Sutphin, chief of the Westfield Fire Department and soon to be president of the Surry County Fire Council, told the commissioners the problems with staffing volunteer stations have been growing since the mid-1990’s.
He described to the county commissioners in early 2022 three proposals for adding paid firefighter coverage to augment the volunteer fire stations. Now some four months later, he happily reported, “I just wanted to let you know that the paid program that you implemented is working.”
Skull Camp, Jot-Um-Down, Central Surry, Bannertown, and Pilot Knob were the stations selected to add a paid firefighter to their staffs. These new staff members “work set hours, usually 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., something like that, and when they are on, they respond to all calls that come in,” Sutphin said.
Since gaining commissioners’ approval the fire council took time to look over candidates to find the right fit for each respective volunteer fire station. They found there was paperwork that needed to be settled. “We had to make sure our insurances were right and adjust some policies our departments had already in place to make sure that we were all legal with the state and the insurance policies.”
When the right candidates were found, in August the boards of the five volunteer fire stations that would be adding a paid staff member gathered to decide on their own whom to hire, removing the decision-making process for local chiefs or the chief’s council to avoid any appearance of impropriety or nepotism. Training for the new firefighters started in September and they are all on staff at this time.
Sutphin said the numbers speak for themselves and compared response times. “You can see the difference in the times that the person on staff responds to calls and gets on scene compared to the time if no one was there.”
“At Skull Camp it has made a four minute and thirteen second difference. At Pilot Knob five minutes twenty-two seconds, Jot-Um-Down five minutes and thirty seconds, Central Surry four minutes and thirty-two seconds, and at Bannertown four minutes and seven seconds.”
“I want to put that in perspective. If you were having a hard time and needed help – what would that five minutes and thirty seconds be worth to you? What would four minutes and seven seconds be worth when you’re hanging upside down in a car on I-77?”
Beyond having the extra pair of boots on the ground the new paid firefighters can also aid in all manner of administrative work from the filing of paperwork to pre-survey work of commercial buildings that has to be done annually. Sutphin told the county commissioners, “What they do when they are not on a call is almost as important.”
He repeatedly mentioned adding the paid staff was improving not only response times but also the ISO fire rating for the county. A local ISO fire rating determines how well the fire department can protect a community. Insurance companies use the score to help set home insurance rates, so a lower score means lower homeowner’s insurance rates for Surry County residents.
Each fire engine has hundreds of pieces of equipment and parts that need to be inspected weekly, said Brian Lowe, fire chief of Skull Camp. Just one of his engines has roughly 400 pieces that need inspection to make sure they are up to code. Truck and equipment inspections are required to ensure that the county’s ISO fire safety rating stays low. Sutphin told the board in spring that for a department to lower its ISO, “That is a huge accomplishment for them to do it.”
While trained in fire or rescue the paid staff member can also handle office work that can be tedious and takes a lot of time, Sutphin explained. This paid staff member is mobile as well and while stationed at one house will go to the others in the district to help with cleaning, training, inspections, and ISO work.
When Commissioner Larry Johnson asked who would have been doing that type of work if not for the paid employee, the answer was more or less a shrug of shoulders, but the consensus was that the chiefs of the volunteer houses are managing much of that work.
He also asked if the plan to divide up the county into quadrants had been implemented, Sutphin confirmed that it had, and one paid firefighter was assigned to each quadrant.
Since the program was launched two months ago the paid staff have responded to 134 calls and Sutphin estimates that the paid firefighter was the only person who responded in at least 40 of those calls. This is often due to there not being any volunteer staff available when the calls come in and while there are contingencies to call to neighboring fire departments for aid, that adds minutes when there may be none to spare. Paid staff in each quadrant who can respond to all calls regardless of nature can have an impact, and their ability to cross district lines as needed will save lives.
Commissioner Van Tucker had questions about what this paid firefighter program may look like in five or more years’ time as the rank of willing volunteers seems to be ever-dwindling. Sutphin agreed with the premise of the question and acknowledged that while all volunteer departments are seeing a decline across the state, this program may offer a solution.
He said that given the success of this paid firefighter program in its early stages, the fire council is hopeful that it will be expanded, “We would love to see a paid firefighter at each station.”
Commissioner Mark Marion agreed and was eager to offer robust support for the paid firefighter program by saying, “Looks like we’ve hit a home run here and I want to keep gaining on it.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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