Volunteers are lifeblood of Fire Dept.
The Pea Ridge Fire Department has about 25 volunteers on the roster and each of those volunteers is essential to the success of the department, Fire Chief Jack Wassman said. The volunteers are, and will be, essential even with fulltime employees to staff the station 24 hours a day year round.
Wassman presented a proposal to the City Council last week asking for permission to accept a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant (SAFER) from FEMA
that would provide salaries for personnel for four years in an effort to transition from a completely volunteer department to a combination department. Council members tabled the request.
If the grant were approved, Wassman said he could hire three paramedics, three emergency medical technicians and six firefighters to staff the station. Currently, the paramedics and EMTs who work at the station are part-time in that they work 56 hours a week in other departments and pick up shifts in Pea Ridge for as much as two days. There are 12 paramedics and 6 EMTs who work in Pea Ridge on their days off from other departments.
State law allows fire department personnel to either work 24 hours on and 48 hours off or 48 on and 96 hours off.
There are several firefighters who currently volunteer their time in the station helping with maintenance, hose testing and other regular chores. He said providing full-time positions will open jobs for the volunteers who are already serving the community.
“We’ve really created an environment where the guys want to be here,” he said. “They want to be here.”
He said it would benefit the city if the staff in house are trained by Pea Ridge, care about the community and are caring for their neighbors.
“Don’t you want people here who are rested, clear minded? Who live, eat, sleep in this community?”
Wassman queried.
Wassman said safety requires three firefighters on an engine and that with four people in the station, three could respond on the engine and one could drive the ambulance to the scene of a structure fire. He said he always has the ambulance on the scene of a structure fire for safety of his personnel. The volunteers would still be needed to respond, but the three first on the scene could begin the attack on the fire. Wassman, who is a fulltime firefighter for the Rogers Fire Department said Rogers “puts 17 firefighters on the ground on every first alarm.”
“I’ve had some volunteers concerned about what they’ll do when we go full-time. Pea Ridge is not ever going to do away with volunteers,” Wassman said. “We have a huge unincorporated area in our fire district.”
“We want to provide ALS (advanced life support) all the time,” Wassman said. “That’s 90% of what we do.”
He said there have been numerous times when the ambulance is on a call and the department receives another ambulance call. “We’ve had to send the second ambulance (which is BLS, basic life support), or call for mutual aid.”
All personnel will be trained for both firefighting and emergency medical, Wassman said. He said transitioning to a combination department enhances safety for the department and provides a better service for residents of the city and the fire district.