That’s what Fairhope’s all volunteer dept. is costing taxpayers, according to the new city budget. Why so much??  Seems like we could afford a real one with someone on duty 24/7 at the station for that much, rather than having to rouse them out of the sack at home in the middle of the night!! There’s no oversight so the $ could be going anywhere. :roll:

If you took the time to see the Fire Dept. in Fairhope has a $800,000 budget you should look and see what that is spent on. Most of it is to pay for dispatchers for the Police and Fire depts and equipment to keep the Volunteers safe. Before you write something you should get the answers straight with the facts. Fairhope Volunteer Fire Dept. has a ISO rating that matches all the other paid depts in Baldwin county.

Everybody in town got a city budget sent in the mail, we just read it; we’re trying to protect a lot of people out side city limits for free(where some vol.  firefighters live, coincidentially); the chief drives an Expedition when Explorer would do; spent $400K(reportedly) for a crash truck at the airport we never use; plus they have a lot of fish fries at the fire hall at our expense! Want to keep the gravy train going! ( a recent fire at Rock Creek took 20min to respond when the standard set by fire chiefs assn is 6min.) No kiddin what we really need is a “combination” prof. supplemented by volunteers.  going to happen someday anyway.  make everybody sleep better too! Hope nobody burns up till then.

lusecanon - 30 November 2007 11:51 PM

the chief drives an Expedition when Explorer would do .

Why don’t you go take a look at his vehicle and see all of the equipment kept in there. In many department’s the chief’s vehicle is the incident command center and it has to be setup to accomplish this task. These rolling offices frequently are filled with fire attack pre-plans, bulding blueprints, on scene accountablility systems, computers, communications equipment, his own PPE (firefighting gear), fire extinguishers, thermal imaging monitors, and breathing aparatus. For all of this equipment, you need room to put it in. Explorers are small. You wanna start putting the police officers in Kie Rios too?

spent $400K(reportedly) for a crash truck at the airport we never use; .

Like your home fire extinguisher, you won’t appreciate it until you need it. It has been used for several incidents. The people flying into the airport appreciate it incase something goes wrong.

plus they have a lot of fish fries at the fire hall at our expense! .

The meals are served there in appreciatione for the firefighter’s service. They don’t get paid, not do they expect any compensation for their time. Small gestures like this are the city and department’s way of saying “thank you for your sacrifice”. Joe Tax Payer paying a firefighter with some fish for risking their lives is a small price to pay.

what we really need is a “combination” prof. supplemented by volunteers.  .

All of us firefighters are professionals. We all are held to the same standards as the paid firefighters. We all have access to the same training, the same tools, the same technology.  Just some get paid to do this. You make it sound as if the volunteers would give sub standard service. I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for 8.5 years and have had the same training as the paid firefighters. I hold the same certifications and in some cases, more than some of the paid guys. Bottom line is, I can’t financialy support my family doing it as a career. The pay is too low. I love doing it but I can’t loose my home and way of life to chase my love of serving the citizens. I just do it for free as I have time to volunteer. 

Before you start knocking this or any firedepartment here in the county, you need to yourslf, come down and spend a month in our boots and see how you like it.

I don’t know anything about the Fairhope fire department, “real” or otherwise, nor do I know what the budget is or what it’s spent on.  But I do know this: whatever wages paid firefighters are getting aren’t nearly enough and all volunteer firefighters are my heroes.

I can’t even imagine a harder or scarier job and am astounded that men (and women) choose it as a vocation...but thank God for them.  Whatever it is that drives these folks to risk their lives to save strangers and their property is an amazing thing and I am personally grateful to every single one of them.

-nab