2020 Fire District #14 Value Of Service

Tim Darland, Fire Chief

What a crazy year 2020 was with the Covid-19 pandemic. It continues to challenge each of us into 2021. During these unprecedented times, I am truly amazed by the dedication of our first responders to answer the call. While compiling the emergency call and training/maintenance data, it is of interest to me to see if any anomalies come forth while pulling the numbers together. One item in particular is that this is the first year I recall where our emergency response call hours exceeded our training and maintenance hours for the year. Should not have been a complete surprise as the department suspended training from 1 April until mid-June. This absent time, however, was spent wisely purchasing personal protective equipment and updating our response protocols for the safety of our responders and patients.

To recap 2020 HPFD activities: Members responded to a total of 119 emergency calls lumped into 5 categories, of which 35 calls were in-district responses. The graph below shows the breakdown. Most of the categories are self-explanatory. The “good intent” calls are where our firefighters were asked to stand down when other departments maintained control of their emergency scene or alarm companies called to cancel responding units.

To calculate the value of service we take the number of hours spent on emergency responses and training/maintenance activities and multiply it by the total personnel time on each activity. Then we multiply the number of volunteer hours by $27.20, the average emergency services hourl wage (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). The table below shows that HPFD MEMBERS VOLUNTEERED A TOTAL OF 701 HOURS in 2020! THE VALUE OF SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY TOTALED $19,067.

I must acknowledge our Fire Commissioners who sign a waiver not to get paid for their time serving in their elected positions, which keeps more dollars in the budget for gear and safety equipment. Thank you for your dedication to our department and community. Another person who deserves acknowledgment is our Administrative Assistant, Glenna Scott. She is a paid member of our department and worth every penny we give her.

Please continue to be safe out there. Remember to check your smoke detectors monthly and keep those burn piles small (10’x10’x4’). For us in Klickitat County Zone #2, the normal time for the burn ban to begin is June 1st. There is always a possibility that the burn ban could go on earlier than planned. I will do my best to keep the community informed if changes to the burn ban occur.

My final plea to the community is that we need volunteers. We are down to just 12 members on the department. In order for the community to continue to receive their 8A insurance rating, I need to prove to WSRB (Washington Surveyors Rating Bureau) that 6 volunteers are assigned to each station. Please consider helping out your neighbor and be part of these amazing volunteers serving our community.

It’s only April but we have already had a spate of fires caused by downed power lines during a recent storm. Meteorologists are already saying that this is a very dry spring… and you KNOW what that means. Fire season is coming sooner this summer. Are you ready?

From 4/4/21 Facebook post, Columbia Gorge Fire

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