Final Recommendations for Suspended Fire Co. Pushed to 2013
By: Jennifer Lee
Updated: December 11, 2012
WASHINGTON COUNTY, MD - Disappointed is how many described feeling after the Task Force decided to push final recommendations for the suspended Fairplay Volunteer Fire Company into the new year.
"We're hoping to be back up in service as soon as possible but now we have to wait until after the first of the year," says EMT Fairplay Volunteer Donna Heller.
Heller ran more than 100 calls for Fairplay this year until the company was officially suspended at the end of July. Their main reason for suspension was problems with response times.
Heller says, "We didn't have staff to run the calls during the day and you know we were disappointed when we would get home and hear we got a missed call or a failed call."
"A lot of the recommendations were overlapped with what we had already done, so we need to go back in clean it up tweak it and make it so it's up to date," says Paul Miller with the Task Force.
The Task Force has been meeting once a week to rebuild the broken fire company.
At this meeting, they went over an inspection report covering personnel training, proper apparatus and equipment.
Fairplay's Fire Chief and President said their main weakness was during the day time on weekdays when most volunteers are working their actual jobs.
Miller says, "This is a great first start. It gives them something they can present to new members, so I think everybody was very happy with them taking the effort and the time and we appreciated that."
Fairplay says they'll be hiring people and not solely relying on volunteers, and are looking to create more community outreach opportunities.
"Obviously since the suspension we haven't been able to run any calls," says Heller. "It's disheartening to me, to be certified and I want to be out there supporting the community and I'm unable to do that."
Washington County Commissioner Terry Baker was at the meeting and also disappointed with the outcome.
The tentative date for the next meeting is set for January 7th.
"We're hoping to be back up in service as soon as possible but now we have to wait until after the first of the year," says EMT Fairplay Volunteer Donna Heller.
Heller ran more than 100 calls for Fairplay this year until the company was officially suspended at the end of July. Their main reason for suspension was problems with response times.
Heller says, "We didn't have staff to run the calls during the day and you know we were disappointed when we would get home and hear we got a missed call or a failed call."
"A lot of the recommendations were overlapped with what we had already done, so we need to go back in clean it up tweak it and make it so it's up to date," says Paul Miller with the Task Force.
The Task Force has been meeting once a week to rebuild the broken fire company.
At this meeting, they went over an inspection report covering personnel training, proper apparatus and equipment.
Fairplay's Fire Chief and President said their main weakness was during the day time on weekdays when most volunteers are working their actual jobs.
Miller says, "This is a great first start. It gives them something they can present to new members, so I think everybody was very happy with them taking the effort and the time and we appreciated that."
Fairplay says they'll be hiring people and not solely relying on volunteers, and are looking to create more community outreach opportunities.
"Obviously since the suspension we haven't been able to run any calls," says Heller. "It's disheartening to me, to be certified and I want to be out there supporting the community and I'm unable to do that."
Washington County Commissioner Terry Baker was at the meeting and also disappointed with the outcome.
The tentative date for the next meeting is set for January 7th.
