First paid Polk firefighters on the job
Fish Creek station is staffed Monday through Friday during peak daytime hours.
A groundbreaking moment for the Polk County Fire and Rescue service is a step in providing better protection for residents in the unincorporated parts of the county.
The largely volunteer agency began a new era on March 25 as its first paid firefighters began their shift at Station 6 in the Fish Creek community. It was the first time the department had a station staffed by regularly scheduled firefighters in its more than 50 year history.
The station will have a minimum of two firefighters on site between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The maximum staff is three during a 12-hour shift. The county board of commissioners approved funding last year to hire a total of 10 part-time positions and two full-time firefighters for the station
Currently, the station is being staffed by part-time employees, however Polk Fire Chief Mike Hanuscin said he hopes to begin the process to fill the full-time positions soon.
“This is about taking better care of the public with a dedicated staff at a station that is central to the county and can help provide quicker response times to our calls,” Hanuscin said.
This plan allows residents to have increased fire coverage during the daytime hours throughout the week, when many of the volunteer firefighters are at their primary jobs. Jeff Groom, Wayne Dunn and David Grindstaff served as the first shift for the station.
Like Dunn, six of the part-time firefighters come from within the agency’s volunteer corps, while four of them are new to the department, like Grindstaff. Hanuscin emphasized that they are all experienced
firefighters, with many holding full-time positions at other area fire departments.
“It’s been coming for many years. Polk County has been growing. It’s a sign of the times. And you’ve got to grow with it,” said Dunn.
“I’ve lived in Cedartown my whole life. To be able to get this opportunity to be a part of something new means a lot to me. It’s a good thing. Cedartown needs it and hopefully I can grow with it and see it pick up from here,” Grindstaff said.
Plans to expand Polk County’s paid firefighter ranks and staff more stations are not in motion yet, but they are definitely not off the table.
“It’s going to be left up to the county commission to see where it goes from here. But, this is the starting point,” Hanuscin said.
Hanuscin said if it is possible the next step would be a similar situation be created at a station on both the east and west ends of the county for better overall coverage.
“Whether they would be staffed for 12 hour shifts or eight hours, we don’t know yet. It’s all a work in progress,” Hanuscin said.
Hanuscin said the hope is the
staffed station will improve the department’s Insurance Services Office — or ISO — rating with the increase in staffing hours and better response times.
“If we can reduce the ISO, we can send a saving to the citizens,” Hanuscin said.
A fire department’s ISO rating is a determination by the Insurance Services Office by how well a department is able to serve the community. Departments are assigned a score between 1 and 10, with lower numbers indicating a better score. High ISO scores can increase home insurance rates in the community. Polk Fire Rescue has an ISO score of 5/10.