Volunteer Firefighting
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- Created on Friday, 06 May 2016 20:45
- Written by Matthew Nelson
Lyndonville- There are several volunteer fire departments throughout the state of Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom. Volunteer departments in our area include Barnet, Bradford, West Burke and East Burke, Peacham, Danville and Lyndonville to name a few.
The Lyndonville Fire Department has around 30 volunteers, which seems like a lot but in most cases it’s not enough according to Lyndonville Fire Chief Butch Forget. Because it’s volunteer based most workers have prior commitments. Often times leaving only one or two volunteers when something goes wrong.
“The thing is with the volunteers they each have there own priorities.” Said Forget, “It would be nice if we could get 30 firefighters here at every call but a lot of the times we’re lucky to get one or two depending on the time of day.”
Some of the volunteer’s priorities include taking classes at Lyndon State, as five of them are full time students.
One student and volunteer firefighter Ricky Millien explained that although he has a busy schedule between volunteering, classes and work, his time at the fire station is still very fulfilling and worth every second “My schedule is super busy but when I have the time being at the station is one of my favorite things. I want to be a certified firefighter in Boston someday and helping out in Lyndonville is getting me closer to that goal.”
According to Chief Forget the only benefit of having a volunteer fire department is fiscal. “It lowers the cost for the government and the town of Lyndonville with taxes.”
In order to become a volunteer firefighter you need to fill out an application, which will then be reviewed at an officers meeting. Some of the criteria is that you are already a level one or higher fire fighter or that you will enroll in a class to become a level one firefighter within the year.
“Another one of the requirements is that you either live or work in Lyndonville.” Forget said, “Now we’re talking about the Lyndonville fire department, other fire departments might have a different criteria.”
If you were to get accepted from the fire department it doesn’t mean that you will be putting out fires right away. If you are not certified for a level one then you could be doing something like directing traffic.
Becoming a volunteer firefighter is no easy task and requires a lot of training according to Chief Forget. If you are a certified level one then you need to keep training in order to maintain your credentials.
Fire stations around the Northeast Kingdom hope on having a class this fall to become a level one firefighter. The class will start in September and end in May. There will be a class of three hours once or twice a week and some weekends. When you finish you can become a certified firefighter.