rangerjim93
06-10-2005, 05:36 PM
At the last meeting of my Department, I was alarmed (no pun intended) by the Chief's report at the response or lack of response to fire calls here in my department in Wyoming County. He stated he is lucky to get enough men to even roll a truck, let alone two to many calls. Seems to me that with the number of active members my department has, we should be doing better than that. Luckily we have not had an "all Hands' fire or my chief would have had one heck of a problem before calling mutual aid. Last one was a relatively small housefire that took manpower away from a gun raffle I was working and for that we needed whatever help we could get. While my role in the department is strictly a support role, I am concerned enough to raise the issue as other departments in Western New York as well as elsewhere may be having similar manpower problems. A foot injury in a 1997 accident ended any hope of my going active in my department, though I believe I could help out with policing functions in addition to my support role, but that is beside the point. The point is, some volunteer departments are not getting enough manpower showing up at some fires. Something has got to be done. Why not a support role for nonactive members at some incident scenes, where safety permits?