Chief's Corner

I haven't updated my page in a long time, so I felt like changing it up a bit.  Thanks again for visiting the website.  It's been hilariously slow in our area so not much has changed in a couple of months, so I thought I would just rant for a change of pace:

Firefighting, more specifically volunteer firefighting has changed dramatically since I joined and even before.  When I started on the department, the mindset was "I'm here to help, regardless of training, liabilities, regulations, etc." Which we all can agree is a noble and definitely respectable stance to have.

Now things are different.  I'm constantly monitoring for legal and regulatory changes in legislation and guidelines for our personnel, while at the same time attempting to train new members in a "safe training" environment.  Its hard to believe that you can become certified to be a firefighter without even spraying water on actual fire.

Manpower is at a critical level, not just at West Marshall, not just Marshall County, everywhere.  Any department that says its not a problem is shrouding the truth.  We can no longer sign up to "just help."  Now I have to train you to death, and you have to follow the same guidelines that any larger paid department has to abide by.

However, with all that said, the real reason I hope everyone is on this department and any other is to help.  The world is designed to face danger, emergency and disaster and it is our job to mitigate and respond to help people when nobody else can or will.  It may just be a place to come a couple times a month and a way to run red lights to some, but it means a whole lot more to me than that.  We're the first line of defense in life and property conservation and incident stabilization.  And it's something to be proud of.

Again, thanks for visiting our website.
Brian