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Hello,
I have been on a volunteer fire department now for about four years and I am really starting to question the leadership qualities of the Fire Chief. To give you some background, we are a small rural fire department that consists of four strictly all-volunteer fire stations which mostly respond to brush fires and the occasional structure fire. Our fleet consists of mostly donated trucks from either surplus or other departments and we have a training meeting once a month. The training meetings mostly consist of watching a video with an occasional hands-on activity. I asked that it would be great to actually get some more hands-on training and not just always review from the video but nothing has really come of it. It's gotten to the point that a group of us would get together on a weekend and review how to put the trucks into the pump, test the equipment and pull a line or two to flow some water. Anyway, a few months later the Chief heard of this and told us we could no longer do this because it’s a liability. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago two of our top volunteers got written up from the Chief because they took the Engine out of the bay and tested the equipment on it since it hasn't been used in a while. Now, I do understand what they did was wrong since he did give them a warning about however, I have some concerns about the Chief actions still. Even though he never handed the two top volunteers the letter, (his son who is 16 did it) he never discussed it with them. If anything, he got his information from was a Facebook post. Also, in case you are wondering we don’t have any standard operations procedure which this would be a violation of. In fact, we don't have any standard of operations at all.
What I don't understand is how is taking the truck out of the station and testing the equipment a liability especially if they have already been checked out on the truck?
Since we don't do many calls, isn't it a good idea to test the equipment? Just the other day during a call we found out the lightbar on the tender wasn't work, now if we are able to take the trucks out of the bay and test everything, we would have found this problem.
Is it common to check with the Chief if you want to pull the truck out of the station and test the equipment? Yes, I know we could just give him a call but he isn't always available. Plus they do trust you on a call but not during downtimes, this too me doesn't make any sense.
The double standard of the Fire Chief is unbelievable. It’s okay for volunteers to store a truck at his house to respond with (even though they are only 2 minutes from the station) but still, we need to contact him to take a truck out of the bay.
The only reason why we felt the need to train on the weekends is to get familiar with the trucks so we have some idea of what we are doing and how things work. To this date, I remember my first brush fire with this department in which I had no formal training and I fought a fire for 12 hours. During this time, our truck was overrun with fire\smoke as the winds shifted, and lucky, we got out of there. During the night, I questioned myself as to why I was doing this even though it was a lifelong dream of mine. Anyway, I stuck with it, took actually training from the BLM, and learned a lot and I haven't been in that situation since. However, just recently we had a brush fire and we had a new volunteer in the area with no training at all, and Command asked them to drive out the to the area and get eyes on it in his POV. Lucky, it just turned out to be some farmers burning a ditch however to me this seems risky.
I love being a volunteer but I can't stand the lack of leadership and the worst part is that I'm not the only one. I just don't know how we can change the department when the leadership is so out of control. Most of the volunteers are retired folk and really don't care, however, the younger folk who actually want to make a difference it's hurting the most.
Does anyone have any idea on how to handle this or how to make changes?
Thanks...
I have been on a volunteer fire department now for about four years and I am really starting to question the leadership qualities of the Fire Chief. To give you some background, we are a small rural fire department that consists of four strictly all-volunteer fire stations which mostly respond to brush fires and the occasional structure fire. Our fleet consists of mostly donated trucks from either surplus or other departments and we have a training meeting once a month. The training meetings mostly consist of watching a video with an occasional hands-on activity. I asked that it would be great to actually get some more hands-on training and not just always review from the video but nothing has really come of it. It's gotten to the point that a group of us would get together on a weekend and review how to put the trucks into the pump, test the equipment and pull a line or two to flow some water. Anyway, a few months later the Chief heard of this and told us we could no longer do this because it’s a liability. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago two of our top volunteers got written up from the Chief because they took the Engine out of the bay and tested the equipment on it since it hasn't been used in a while. Now, I do understand what they did was wrong since he did give them a warning about however, I have some concerns about the Chief actions still. Even though he never handed the two top volunteers the letter, (his son who is 16 did it) he never discussed it with them. If anything, he got his information from was a Facebook post. Also, in case you are wondering we don’t have any standard operations procedure which this would be a violation of. In fact, we don't have any standard of operations at all.
What I don't understand is how is taking the truck out of the station and testing the equipment a liability especially if they have already been checked out on the truck?
Since we don't do many calls, isn't it a good idea to test the equipment? Just the other day during a call we found out the lightbar on the tender wasn't work, now if we are able to take the trucks out of the bay and test everything, we would have found this problem.
Is it common to check with the Chief if you want to pull the truck out of the station and test the equipment? Yes, I know we could just give him a call but he isn't always available. Plus they do trust you on a call but not during downtimes, this too me doesn't make any sense.
The double standard of the Fire Chief is unbelievable. It’s okay for volunteers to store a truck at his house to respond with (even though they are only 2 minutes from the station) but still, we need to contact him to take a truck out of the bay.
The only reason why we felt the need to train on the weekends is to get familiar with the trucks so we have some idea of what we are doing and how things work. To this date, I remember my first brush fire with this department in which I had no formal training and I fought a fire for 12 hours. During this time, our truck was overrun with fire\smoke as the winds shifted, and lucky, we got out of there. During the night, I questioned myself as to why I was doing this even though it was a lifelong dream of mine. Anyway, I stuck with it, took actually training from the BLM, and learned a lot and I haven't been in that situation since. However, just recently we had a brush fire and we had a new volunteer in the area with no training at all, and Command asked them to drive out the to the area and get eyes on it in his POV. Lucky, it just turned out to be some farmers burning a ditch however to me this seems risky.
I love being a volunteer but I can't stand the lack of leadership and the worst part is that I'm not the only one. I just don't know how we can change the department when the leadership is so out of control. Most of the volunteers are retired folk and really don't care, however, the younger folk who actually want to make a difference it's hurting the most.
Does anyone have any idea on how to handle this or how to make changes?
Thanks...
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