Putting in thirty thousand hours

Hanna Fire Chief Mark Kostovny gave a report to Hanna Town Council on March 8.

"I just thought it would be good for you to know who is helping us and what it takes to be a volunteer firefighter," Kostovny told the council. "There are a lot of elements going on to keep a volunteer fire department going."

Kostovny said the Hanna Volunteer Fire Department (HVFD) answered 122 calls in 2021.

As of March 12, there have been 32 calls this year.

"In 2021 we spent 1,071 hours on total fire call time, 474.5 hours to work on the trucks and building, 435 hours for meetings that happened once a month, 558 hours for trainings that happen about every two months and the one that jumped out at me was 808 hours that we do additional for such things as parades, fundraisers and helping with the food truck when it comes to town," Kostovny said. "That makes a total hours spent of 33,446.5 which broken down makes each volunteer giving an average 223.5 hours they are contributing of their time. That is a lot of time to give up in addition to every thing else these volunteers do especially when there are families involved."

He said Carbon County has been supportive of the HVFD.

"The town of Hanna gives the county $7,000 for fire protection each year and that money goes for gas and paying utilities in the building," Kostovny said. "Gas can get expensive since the majority of our calls are out of town."

Kostovny estimated nearly 80 percent of calls for the fire department were outside of town limits.

HVFD has had generous donors to help the volunteers be safe as they execute their duties as firefighters.

"We were able to buy 15 sets of bunker gear. That includes new helmets, new boots, gloves," Kostovny said. "Sinclair paid for the bunker gear, Rocky Mountain Power paid for the helmets, the town of Hanna paid for the boots."

He said the department has been able to upgrade their tools.

"Vestas gave us the money for the tools," Kostovny said. "And Bridge Street Bargains has been extremely generous to us. We just went out and bought two new hand grinders, which can be essential in certain situations. If a person is impaled on rebar-which honestly doesn't happen often, but it happens-we can't pull the rebar out. So in order to transport a person in this situation to the hospital, we can't use a saw. Now I can go right in and cut it off."

He said over his 30 years of being with the HVFD. there are situations which can call for extraordinary measures.

"I have been in situations where we had to remove and take the entire car seat because, in older cars, the adjustment lever impaled the person," Kostovny recounted. "We had to dismantle the seat and have the lever taken out at the hospital. Now we are using tools that make all the difference in saving lives."

There are other ways businesses have helped the HVFD.

"The town gave us a Jeep and Audi that had been abandoned for a fundraiser event," Kostovny said. "We put them in a raffle, but we had to get them running. Point S (Kilburn Tires) in Rawlins and O'Reillys helped us with parts to get them running. Car Quest did the work on the Audi. Dallin Motors did the work on the Jeep. It really helped out."

He said food and supplies fundraisers receive help from Walmart, RNB State Bank, Valley Foods, City Market and Hanna Hometown Market.

"These fundraisers help us in so many ways," Kostovny said. "We were able to get an air conditioner for the meeting room. These businesses I mentioned help their fire departments too. It is really gratifying they step up to help all the communities where they can. The county just bought us a rescue truck. They paid $30,000 to the Natrona County fire district. If you went out on the market to get it, the cost would be $150,000."

It isn't cheap to have the trucks that HVFD has. Kostovny said the first pumper fire truck runs about $325,000 and the second one $400,000. The tanker costs around $125,000.

"Ours aren't fancy," Kostovny said. "I have seen fire ladder trucks at the factory going for $900,000. If you wanted to replace what we have, it costs over a million dollars. That is why upkeep is so important."

He said the town doesn't have a ladder truck, but there could be a use for one.

"Fire fighting is changing and instead of having the firefighter run into a building, we are becoming more defensive as fires are getting more dangerous," Kostovny said. "So now firefighters are using ladder trucks to get above structures and dump water in. Rawlins and Laramie have ladder trucks and if we needed one, they could used. We have to think more defensive because new buildings burn so much faster with the materials they are using. What would bur in 15 minutes is gone in about six or seven minutes."

The most popular fundraiser is when HVFD does a pancake breakfast.

"We are so lucky that the businesses mentioned have basically paid for all food to make it happen," Kostovny said. "We even have had Burger King donate syrup and butter packets for these breakfasts."

The meetings always have a meal because many of the volunteers go straight from work to the meeting.

"Many don't have time to go home and eat," Kostovny said. "Those meals are a little incentive for my volunteers to make the meeting and again, we get help being able to afford doing this."

He said keeping a volunteer fire department requires efforts from individuals and businesses.

"Too often people don't think about what it takes for this small group of volunteers to keep their communities safe," Kostovny said. "And the without generous nature of businesses and people that donate to us, we would not have safe equipment. I can't ask a volunteer to risk their life in an already dangerous situation with a bad piece of equipment. I have to keep them safe and that is why support is essential. Because we proved 122 times in 2021 the fire department is needed."