Urges support of the fire district

Dear Editor,

I wanted to express my support for the creation of a Fire Protection District in Carbon County on the upcoming November ballot. I would also encourage residents of unincorporated Carbon County to support it as well.

This issue has been placed on the ballot by our County Commissioners to address the ever growing need for resources in all of the divisions of the Carbon County Fire Department.

The resources needed including, vehicles and apparatus, training, personal protective equipment were not dreamed up by bureaucrats wishing to take our tax monies and spend it needlessly. The needs for these resources were identified as such by the division Fire Chiefs of Carbon County. These are your local division fire chiefs, which live in your town, which directly oversee your firefighters and respond to your emergencies when called.

These are the same chiefs that have previously requested more than 1.5 million dollars of funding for their fire divisions. This is an amount of funding that can not be delivered to the Carbon County Fire Department.

The yearly budget for the Carbon County Fire Department is currently about 330,000 dollars. 330,000 dollars to fund ten fire divisions, to equip, train, and compensate almost 150 firefighters, and maintain 55 vehicles or apparatus.

This amount is not enough to meet the needs of the department or the citizens they serve.

First and foremost, the needed resources directly impact the safety of our firefighters. Our firefighters take great risk every time they respond to a call.

We should do everything we can to minimize that risk. By expecting our firefighters to use inadequate, outdated, untested or non-certified equipment, or by not providing it at all, is a disservice to them. By not providing medical screenings or evaluations we put our firefighters at risk. There are standards and guidelines that are not currently being met.

One could argue many of these standards and guidelines are unfunded mandates or an undue influence on local departments. I would argue that many of these standards and guidelines are in place so we hopefully don’t relive a tragedy that has been experienced by some other community. Tragedy is a powerful influence of change.

I believe our County Commission has diligently worked to improve or at least maintain a certain level of fire service in Carbon County. Without the Fire District, I believe the level of service could be negatively impacted. The County Commission has to live within its means when making financial decisions. Carbon County has reached a tipping point. The County Commission can not support all of the requests it gets for funding and has had to make tough decision in cutting expenditures and denying request for funds. This has including many fire service requests.

The Carbon County Fire Department has received some new equipment that has been stationed around Carbon County.

However, Carbon County has an ever aging fleet of vehicles and apparatus. The divisions have done an extraordinary job of maintaining and repairing this equipment. It is shiny, well cared for and looks amazing in the parades. But, water tanks and piping rust or corrode, rubber rots, electrical systems and pumps deteriorate.

Is this the equipment you want to depend on to save the life of your loved one, and keep our firefighters safe?

Training has also been identified as an area that needs improving county wide. Not only does training cost the department monetarily, but in manpower as well. With the possibility of hiring a trainer(s) for the Fire Protection District, training could be provided in every fire division of the county.

The training would be consistent and uniform. All county firefighters could receive the same training. This would also free up time from the individual divisions in planning, preparing and instructing their individual firefighters. My experience has been that it takes about four or five times as long to plan and prepare for a class than it does to attend one. This would also allow for a firefighter to choose when and where to attend training as it could be instructed on different dates, times and locations.

For the safety of all firefighters and the community they serve, firefighters should be required to attain a basic level of knowledge, certification and training. But, we also have to make several options available to them so they may attain it.

Carbon County is a vast expanse of land, just shy of 8,000 square miles. Although large in size our population is small. Our population mostly centers in the cities and towns of within the county.

However, many smaller subdivision, residences, and businesses are being built in the unincorporated areas of the county.

The growth in unincorporated will continue. We need our emergency services to be prepared for that growth.

In closing, I urge you to vote in favor of the creation of a Fire Protection District for Carbon County. Our individual costs in taxes is by far outweighed by the benefits of improving the level of service provided by the County Fire Department, improving safety for our firefighters and ultimately the safety of the citizens of Carbon County.

Respectfully,

Mike Morris

Fort Steele