一个fterSpotsylvania(VA) career firefighters reportedly made comments that their volunteer counterparts found insulting, members of the Spotsylvania Volunteer Fire Department (SVFD) has threatened to stop manning its three county stations.
There are 10 Spotsylvania fire stations. On nights and weekends, SVFD mans the stations at Spotsylvania Courthouse, Four Mile Fork, and Thornburg. A meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 31, to discuss the comments as well as the county’s mandatory training requirements. The meeting could result in SVFD’s threat becoming a permanent reality.
The comments in question appeared in an article inThe Free Lance-Star, which covered a fire commission meeting held on Saturday. The meeting was held to discuss the county’s mandatory training requirements for its career and volunteer firefighters. The article quoted a training chief, who expresses his disapproval that some volunteers had taken a class outside the county because it was less time- consuming.
Mark Kuechler, an assistant chief with SVFD and chairman of the Fire and EMS commission, did not see a problem with the variation of training classes since all classes administer the same test.The Free Lance-Stararticle also cited a career firefighter who says, “If somebody can’t complete the necessary training in two years, then maybe you don’t have time to volunteer.”
Kuechler says there is a 50-percent chance SVFD will decide to stop manning its stations. If SVFD decides to follow through on its threat, the career department would need to organize reassignments and overtime hours to man the additional stations, Deputy Fire Chief Scott Hechler says.
On Sunday, volunteers did not complete their weekend shift after reading theFree Lance–Stararticle. However, mandatory training requirements were an issue long before. It began with a fatal fire in February 2010, after which internal and external reviews revealed volunteer firefighters had made mistakes during their response. This prompted the county to change its minimum training standards.
The changes were set to take effect in January 2013, but the Board of Supervisors pushed the deadline back to January 1, 2014, to allow current volunteers more time to complete their training. Although volunteers logged more than 6,000 training hours this past year, Kuechler insists they still cannot meet the county’s requirements by the new deadline.
New volunteer firefighters will need to complete 400 hours of training over a two-year period. If they do not meet these requirements, they will still be allowed to serve but will be assigned limited roles.
Virginia does not have statewide requirements for firefighter training, so that issue is not expected to spread beyond Spotsylvania. Officials in Spotsylvania’s other volunteer agencies say they have no plans to stop manning their stations.
For more information, visithttp://bit.ly/16zdMep.
Relations between career and volunteer firefighters can sometimes be contentious. For more on combination fire departments, considerTRANSITION TO A COMBINATION DEPARTMENTandFDIC 2012 Workshop Deals with Leading in Volunteer/Combination Departments.
