I remember years ago, my father had a friend who was a member of the Eutaw Volunteer Fire Department in rural Greene County, Ala. They called themselves the 'chimney savers' because in many cases they could only save the chimney of a burning home and focused more on keeping the fire from spreading to other properties.
Back in those days, I'm guessing the 1960s and early 1970s, volunteer fire departments like the one in Eutaw held multiple fundraisers by selling everything from ribs to cupcakes to raise enough money to hopefully buy an old truck and a fire hose. Most of the firemen had no training. They were friends and relatives of the people in their community. It was a pretty big deal to get a firetruck. I remember the old movies when there would be a line full of people passing buckets of water toward a burning home or barn.
Over the years, I've seen a vast improvement in our volunteer fire departments. I've seen equipment being greatly upgraded and I've seen volunteers who have gone through a lot of training exercises so that they not only save chimneys, but they save homes and they save lives.
In most of the rural areas when someone dials 911 the first vehicle to arrive on scene is a volunteer fireman. Many of these volunteers are also certified in emergency medical treatment. I've seen volunteers save lives. I had to call 911 one time in the early hours on a Wednesday for a medical call and it was a volunteer fireman who was the first through the front door.
Last Thursday I went to cover a fire at the apartments on Martin Luther King Drive that turned out to be two fires. One of the first things I noticed was several guys dressed in their Flomaton High School baseball uniforms dragging fire hoses and helping a man who had been overcome with smoke.
Those young men were part of Flomaton's junior firman program, where they get the training needed to one day become a volunteer fireman.
I've attended some of the training sessions firemen go through. Those sessions are designed to keep the firemen safe and give them the tools they need to not only put out fires, but to rescue victims.
I talked with Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton and former Chief Jimmy Brantley about the importance of a junior fireman program. Both said it's crucial, but both also said the rewards may be short lived.
As Brantley said, most of the people in the program are high school students. In a year or so many will be heading off to college. Volunteer fire departments are made up of people who have regular jobs and can't just leave at the drop of a hat to respond to a fire, wreck or medical call.
As I talked to Stanton and Brantley I realized one very important thing – you can have all the modern equipment in the world, but if you don't have the manpower to operate it, it's basically useless in the event of an emergency.
Flomaton now has a paid fireman; Escambia County (Fla.) has a combination of paid and volunteer firemen. Many of the current volunteers are getting up in age and can't do what they could do when they were in their 20s and 30s. They need young people to take their places. The older firemen can provide a wealth of knowledge to the younger firemen, many are simply not physically able to do what needs to be done in certain circumstances.
Flomaton's fortunate to receive some funds from the town. Many other rural fire departments don't have that luxury. They get a little money here and there from things like the tobacco tax and from the Alabama Forestry Commission, but many are like the old Eutaw volunteers and have to rely on donations and fund raisers to stay in existence.
One of the things Brantley said was that he'd like to see the county implement some type of fire tax to help fund the volunteer fire departments. Escambia County, Fla., has such a tax, where people help pay to maintain the volunteer fire departments and supplement them with paid staff.
I'm not sure how we could go about implementing a fire tax but my bet is the Alabama Legislature would have to first give us permission to do so.
So, I guess my question to you is 'would you support a fire tax in Escambia County, Ala.?' If it was put on a referendum ballot to let's say implement a $25 or $50 per year tax per household to help fund fire protection, would you vote for it?
I know for sure that when any of us dial 911 we want help in a matter of seconds. As we embark on an election year, it's a good question to ask our elected officials if they would support such a tax.
I understand there needs to be a lot of details worked out about the amount of the tax and how the money would be distributed, but the concept is something we should all think about.
