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County emergency services report: multiple structure fires, two elderly residents rescued; volunteer recruitment remains a challenge
Summary
Emergency services briefed the committee on several recent structure fires, including a July 3 house fire where Fairhaven volunteers and ambulance crew rescued two elderly residents; recruitment and training trends for volunteer departments were also discussed.
The county’s emergency services director reported a busy week that included at least five structure-fire responses and highlighted a July 3 house fire in which members of Fairhaven Village volunteer fire and ambulance crews performed life-saving rescues for two elderly residents.
"I wanna recognize ... the members of the Fairhaven Village ambulance corps and Fairhaven Village volunteer fire department who performed life saving measures and saved 2 elderly people that were trapped in a house fire on the morning of July 3," the director told the committee.
The director said the office fielded 70 calls year-to-date and that the previous seven days included nine dispatches from the office, including five potential or working structure fires. The agency credited coordination with ambulance corps and later assistance from the Red Cross.
The director and committee members also discussed continuing difficulties recruiting volunteer firefighters, a trend they said follows national patterns. Training and certification requirements, socioeconomic factors and minimum-hours expectations were cited as deterrents; at the same time local departments successfully ran a required exterior-operations course with more than 20 registrants, the director said.
Committee members commended the volunteer responders and said the coordination across agencies had helped manage a busy period. No formal actions or votes were taken on recruitment policy at this meeting.
