Maxwell Fire Department Craziness

From the comments section of the DSMR article, it appears that the firefighters all got physicals. They just didn't use the "right" doctor and fill in the "correct" form while they were doing it.

My guess? The City Council will ask the Chief "WTF are you doing?" Even if she's right here, she's still the Chief during a period where the strength of her force went down by damn near 50% (17 to 10). Right or wrong, she's not much of a leader based on this controversy.

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Originally Posted by Clark

It's a good joke but aren't most fire departments dispatched by county, not town?

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Before 911 was in my hometown, there were direct numbers to the police and firestation... I remember it to this day, ###-3434.

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Originally Posted by BKLYNCyclone

Before 911 was in my hometown, there were direct numbers to the police and firestation... I remember it to this day, ###-3434.

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Yep. We didn't get 911 until I was in Jr High maybe?

The current way we have VFDs is crazy. Yes it is nice to have one in every town, but it costs a lot of money to have firetrucks sitting around for 4 fires a year. We have a great group of guy on our dept, the problem is none of them work in town, so a fire during the day and you are screwed. Neighboring dept does a good job if picking up the slack and helping out. At some point they need to go to area depts, but that is a hard sell.

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Originally Posted by kingcy

The current way we have VFDs is crazy. Yes it is nice to have one in every town, but it costs a lot of money to have firetrucks sitting around for 4 fires a year. We have a great group of guy on our dept, the problem is none of them work in town, so a fire during the day and you are screwed. Neighboring dept does a good job if picking up the slack and helping out. At some point they need to go to area depts, but that is a hard sell.

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I think that is how it works now. Most VFDs cover rural areas as well, not just the town.

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Originally Posted by VTXCyRyD

I think that is how it works now. Most VFDs cover rural areas as well, not just the town.

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I know the Winterset department covers most of Madison County, and they also support all the smaller communitites that have tiny volunteer departments like Peru, Earlham and St. Charles. They also help out larger departments like West Des Moines or Waukee if they get in a crunch & need some help for some reason.

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Originally Posted by TXCyclones

This is typical of all small town VFD's, otherwise known as drinking clubs. I used to be on the VFD to a neighboring town to Maxwell and was a first responder as well. But the priorities shifted to being more about water-fights on weekends than about citizen safety IMHO. These little VFD's are cliques wrapped around who you'd rather drink-with or party-with than anything else. I'm shocked that there hasn't been a lawsuit thus far, but would bet that there's enough butt-hurt with this one that there will be.

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Cambridge? I was on that department for a while.

My uneducated guess is this chief hold no power in his day to day life so as the Chief he goes on a power trip. Pretty typical in all walks of volunteer work based on my experience.

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Originally Posted by mtowncyclone13

VFDs need to be uniformly regulated by the state. A huge problem going forward is that many full-time fire fighters in larger cities (who live in smaller nearby cities) are prohibited by their employers insurance to volunteer for smaller cities. This means the professional and truly knowledgeable people can not help their small towns. The idea that the VFD needs to meet physical standards is absolutely true in terms of applying for and receiving grant money. I am aprt of a group that grants out about 100k per year and if the applicant can't show professional competentcy there is no way they are getting any money.

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KCRG had a story last year about five CR fire fighters who are also the chiefs of ther neighboring small towns.

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Originally Posted by kingcy

The current way we have VFDs is crazy. Yes it is nice to have one in every town, but it costs a lot of money to have firetrucks sitting around for 4 fires a year. We have a great group of guy on our dept, the problem is none of them work in town, so a fire during the day and you are screwed. Neighboring dept does a good job if picking up the slack and helping out. At some point they need to go to area depts, but that is a hard sell.

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Never going to work. You must have a volunteer department where the center of population is or you discourage response. Full time departments in rural areas is not practical or possible. You have no idea the expense in something like that. A typical small town fire dept (town of less than 1000) will have a budget for a year under $50,000. That wouldn't even pay for one full time firefighter.

If you are arguing for a fire district, then I agree completely. Leave the departments where they are but give them a governing body who's only propose is the fire department. Expand it to cover several small towns and suddenly one have departments that work and train together and you have a much better coverage. I've seen this work in Washington, townships in Iowa do not work.

Iowa as a state needs to invest a little more into the fire service. The training around Ames is pretty good, but I'm guessing it is lacking as you get farther out from the Training Bureau. There isn't a true fire academy to help serve volunteers, really the only half way decent academy in the state is the city of Des Moines and it still doesn't measure up to other state academies throughout the country and is only for the city.

Washington State had a full fire academy decades ago. The population of Washington when they built it was about the same as the population of Iowa now so there really isn't a excuse. Washington also has a state mobilization law that allows the state to take over management of large incidents. It provides resources and funding when local resources are depleted Iowa doesn't have anything but a mass mutual aid pack.

Last the oversight of Iowa volunteer departments are lacking. Alcohol should not be allowed in any fire stations. Training requirements are very low with no repercussion if a department doesn't adhere. These changes tend to drive some people off, but normally they are the people you really would rather not have on a fire anyway. The people who actually care about what they are doing and don't just see it as a status position will embrace such changes. Remember that fire departments should be a para-military operation. Politics don't have a place in the day to day running of a fire department.

I wonder if the city council would have a different opinion if their house was on fire and there wasn't any one to put it out.

Suspensions lifted... http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/d...nsions/article

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Originally Posted by VTXCyRyD

I think that is how it works now. Most VFDs cover rural areas as well, not just the town.

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They all cover the rural areas. The point is still the same.

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Originally Posted by jaretac

Never going to work. You must have a volunteer department where the center of population is or you discourage response. Full time departments in rural areas is not practical or possible. You have no idea the expense in something like that. A typical small town fire dept (town of less than 1000) will have a budget for a year under $50,000. That wouldn't even pay for one full time firefighter.

If you are arguing for a fire district, then I agree completely. Leave the departments where they are but give them a governing body who's only propose is the fire department. Expand it to cover several small towns and suddenly one have departments that work and train together and you have a much better coverage. I've seen this work in Washington, townships in Iowa do not work.

Iowa as a state needs to invest a little more into the fire service. The training around Ames is pretty good, but I'm guessing it is lacking as you get farther out from the Training Bureau. There isn't a true fire academy to help serve volunteers, really the only half way decent academy in the state is the city of Des Moines and it still doesn't measure up to other state academies throughout the country and is only for the city.

Washington State had a full fire academy decades ago. The population of Washington when they built it was about the same as the population of Iowa now so there really isn't a excuse. Washington also has a state mobilization law that allows the state to take over management of large incidents. It provides resources and funding when local resources are depleted Iowa doesn't have anything but a mass mutual aid pack.

Last the oversight of Iowa volunteer departments are lacking. Alcohol should not be allowed in any fire stations. Training requirements are very low with no repercussion if a department doesn't adhere. These changes tend to drive some people off, but normally they are the people you really would rather not have on a fire anyway. The people who actually care about what they are doing and don't just see it as a status position will embrace such changes. Remember that fire departments should be a para-military operation. Politics don't have a place in the day to day running of a fire department.

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Im not saying have fulltime firefighters. What I am saying is it is expensive for every small town to have 5 firetruck and a rescue unit that dont get used much. When you have a town where none of the firefighters work, it is quicker for a neighboring town to respond than the nearest town.

ALL VFD have a drinking problem...that's just par for the course.

None of them are there to save your house...and quite honestly no professional FD is going to do much better (They may save the structure but it'll be a disaster to clean up...I'd rather have the slab).

Quite honestly I think 95% of FD should be VFD. Most of the cities have budget issues...and other than airports and heavy industrial areas a VFD would do just fine. Most cities have the FD responding to damn near everything just to keep them busy these days.

God bless those who do the VFD...but IMHO their biggest job in rural areas is holding wild fires down and keeping house fires from spreading to adjacent structures and homes....which is a big deal.

ALSO...make sure your SMOKE DETECTORS and CO2 DETECTORS are working and powered!!! That is what will save lives more than any FD.