Lyndonville Fire Department Calls

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Created on Thursday, 10 March 2016 22:53

Written by Lily Elmore

LYNDONVILLE- When the Lyndonville Fire Department gets a call, almost 25% are false alarms. Lieutenant Dan Bigelow says these non-emergency calls are a problem when it comes to keeping volunteer firefighters interested.

Bigelow says the calls are typical, with Lyndon State College having many alarms; sometimes the department gets calls for that.

In addition, non-emergency calls hurt the wallets of community members.

“It’s hard to keep the interest involved and it’s hard on the taxpayers,” says Bigelow. “It costs money to roll these trucks out every time and it costs the department a quick bit of money.”

The department pays minimum wage for every responder, which can be from 4 to 16 officials per call.

“It’s hard when every one in four calls you go on, all you do is get in the truck, go to the scene and there’s nothing,” he says.

Lieutenant Bigelow says there’s been an increase in false alarms from previous years, but not by much.