UNION MILLS VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
We Need Your Help
In today's society, volunteers in the fire service are becoming increasingly hard to find. Many reasons for that fact exist, these may include work schedules, children's activities, single parent responsibilities, church activities, both parents working at a public job, and other volunteer activities. A lack of volunteers places a burden on those who can serve. Fighting fire is only a small part of the task. Meeting and training time [36 hours per year minimum] is required by state statute, weekly maintenance checks of apparatus and equipment are also a part of that requirement. Time associated with answering alarms is not counted as a part the 36 hours. Many task which are not mandatory under statute, but must be done, include building and ground maintenance, washing of apparatus, cleaning and servicing equipment after the alarm, and filing reports. A thirty-minute grass fire may require another hour of work getting the equipment serviced for the next alarm. Those who answer the alarm may have all the same personal obligations listed above in addition to the departmental responsibility.
Firefighters do much more than just fight fires. The fire departments have become the
heartbeat of the emergency service. Fire department personnel are local and provide
quick response to auto accidents, search and rescue, and severe weather conditions.
If you would like to become a fire department volunteer, contact your local fire
department for an interview and discuss the requirements of the job. You are needed.
Contact us by e mail, leave a message at 287-7118, contact any department member,
or stop by the firehouse. We meet the first and third Monday of each month at seven p.m.
As stated above, there is work to be done without actually becoming involved with the fire
fighting operation. If you feel you would like to contribute something to the fire service,
but don't have the time or desire to be a full time volunteer, there is something you can do.
Contact your local volunteer unit and offer to wash the windows or the fire truck, mop the floor, or mow the grass; it's dirty work, but somebody has to do it. The hour or two a month you give could allow a firefighter an hour with his family, or an hour to do another task. Make this a family affair, if you have teenage children, it's a great way to teach responsibility and community service.
Many fire departments have a junior fireman program to work with teen's age sixteen to eighteen. Many of these teens move into full time volunteers. Whether or not they continue in the fire service, the lessons learned are a valuable part of their future.
Volunteerism has always been an important part of the American lifestyle, but as the lifestyle changes so do our priorities.
