Emergency responders share concerns

By KATHY NUSSBERGER

Managing Editor

Boundary County firefighters and a representative from Boundary Volunteer Ambulance met informally last week at the Extension Office to discuss a number of common concerns.

The county commissioners attended the meeting, but Chair Ron Smith made it clear that although the commissioners were providing a forum for this discussion, it was not a formal commissioner meeting.

"We are not here to vote or act on behalf of the county during this meeting," Smith explained. "We are simply providing a forum for the various departments to share their concerns. With that said, I do want to add that I believe it is the duty of the commissioners to ensure we have good fire protection in our county. And I feel it is important for not only us, but the entire community, to understand how critical this issue is in all areas, especially in those areas where there is no fire protection available to our citizens."

Although one of the primary topics involved the low number of volunteers trained for fighting fires and first responder services, an even more critical problem according to those present, was how to retain said volunteers and encourage them to continue their participation in the training programs.

John Moss from the Curley Creek Fire Association pointed out that in his area the association has great equipment for fighting fires, "but it does not change the fact, that we only have four trained volunteers to respond in an emergency. Our ability to fight any type of fire is very limited at this time, we just don't have the personnel to provide adequate coverage for our area."

South Boundary Fire Chief Tony Rohrwasser, told the group that his department, which is a taxation district, has begun offering an incentive program.

"Finding volunteers is not really the hard part, the toughest problem we face is our ability to retain the volunteers once we have invested time and money into preparing them," Rohrwasser explained. "On the flip side, to maintain their certification, the volunteers have to donate a couple hundred hours a year just for training. Even though we can't offer them a lot, we are now providing them with the options to participate in a life insurance program, medical insurance and a quarterly cash incentive that is based on a point system."

Some present felt a county wide taxation district was one way to create a better system of fire and first responder protection for the entire area, because they felt the time for volunteers was becoming a thing of the past.

Rohrwasser added that one of the benefits to South Boundary becoming a taxation district was that it opened them up to grants and providing better training to not only their volunteers, but all fire departments county wide.

Many of the representatives from the various fire associations felt that their members would not vote in favor of creating taxation districts.

Boundary County currently has three taxation districts including South Boundary, City of Bonners Ferry and the City of Moyie Springs, as well as four fire associations, Paradise Valley, Curley Creek, Mt. Hall and North Bench.

Bonners Ferry Fire Chief Larry Owsley said the city fire department has 22 volunteers with most ranging between eight and 20 years in the department "I believe the retention of our volunteers is based in part on our ability to offer stipends and incentives such as medical insurance, life insurance, etc. However, we are also having difficulty finding new volunteers."

Another issue of concern involved the way fire and ambulance personnel are dispatched and then called off before they arrive at the accident or emergency scene.

"For example, we have a rollover accident, our firefighters and ambulance personnel spend numerous hours training for these types of emergencies, but we are being called off by people who do not have our training," Rohrwasser added.

Alan Hamilton from Boundary Ambulance also said that when they respond to an accident or emergency situation, there is no charge to the victim unless they actually transport them to the hospital. "People need to understand that we don't charge them for coming out and evaluating their condition. I think they hesitate to allow officers to call us in because they have this misconception and are afraid to incur costs."

"We need to all pull together for the common good of all our residents," Smith said. "We need a system for all emergency services within the county, not just one department. We need a standard of service to determine who should respond."

Another topic brought up at the meeting was the fact that unlike the old days when the forest service or state department of lands utilized any able bodied person to help fight forest fires, today both entities require that all firefighters meet specific certification requirements to help fight fires on state or federal lands.