Plumas County Fire Chiefs Association
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Fire Departments
    • Beckwourth FPD
    • Bucks Lake FD
    • Chester FD
    • Crescent Mills Fire Protection District
    • Eastern Plumas Rural FPD (& C Road)
    • Graeagle FPD
    • Greenhorn Creek FD
    • Hamilton Branch Fire Protection District
    • Indian Valley FD
    • La Porte FPD
    • Long Valley VFD
    • Meadow Valley FPD
    • Peninsula Fire Protection District
    • Plumas County OES
    • Plumas Eureka FD
    • Portola FD
    • Quincy FPD
    • Sierra Valley FPD
    • U.S. Forest Service, Plumas NF
    • West Almanor FPD (& Prattville)
  • Members Only Section
  • Awards & Recognition
    • Chief Robbie Cassou Instructor of the Year Award >
      • 2012 Tom Forster, Asst. Chief Plumas Eureka FD
      • 2013 John Gay, Captain Quincy FPD
      • 2014 Ed Ward, Chief Graeagle FPD
      • 2015 Frank Carey, Assistant Fire Chief Quincy FPD
      • 2016 Dony Sawchuk, Captain, Quincy FPD
      • 2017 David Schmid Quincy FPD
    • Steve Tolen Leadership in EMS Perpetual Award >
      • 2015 Peter Beck, Plumas District Hospital, retired
      • 2016 Ed Ward, Chief Graeagle FPD
      • 2017 Matt Brown & Sam Blesse, Care Flight REMSA
    • Chief Ronny J. Coleman, Honorary Member PCFCA
    • Recognition of Retiring Fire Chiefs
    • Special Recognition >
      • Mike Grant Plumas County Sheriff's Office
  • Inside the Fire House
    • An Introduction to Fire Departments
    • Why do Fire Departments provide Emergency Medical Services?
    • How Good is your Fire Department? A review of Rating Systems
    • What is the Plumas County Fire Chiefs Association?
    • Helping Each Other - what is Mutual or Automatic Aid between FD's?
    • The Little Dispatch That Could - Plumas County Sheriff's Office Dispatch
    • What's Required to Drive Fire Engines Legally and Safely
    • On Obtaining Newer Fire Engines
    • Recognizing Great Service!
    • What is a Firefighters Muster?
  • Biographies
  • Emergency Medical Care Committee
  • Firewise Communities
  • Former Fire Departments
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Group Calendar
  • Join Us - We are Recruiting!
  • Major Fires & Incidents
    • 2013 Pizza Factory Fire, Quincy CA
    • 2015 Ponderosa Bowling Alley, Portola CA
    • 2017 Minerva 5 Incident, Quincy
  • Memorials
    • Chief Tom Forster, Plumas Eureka FD
    • Chief Andy Anderson, Quincy FD
    • Richard Bruce "Dick" "Specs" Matheny, USFS
    • Sparky Cassou, Quincy FPD
    • William "Bill" Floyd Hopman Quincy FPD
    • Steve Tolen, Quincy FPD, PDH, EMCC
  • Partner Law and Related Agencies
    • Plumas County Sheriff's Office
  • Plumas Sierra County Fair Firefighters Muster
    • 2016 Plumas Sierra County Fair Firefighters Muster
    • 2017 Plumas Sierra County Fair Firefighters Muster
  • Quincy Fire Academy
  • The Quincy FPD Support Team
  • Regional Training
    • Fire Apparatus Driver/Operator 1A CFSTES
    • Emergency Medical Technician - 1
    • FSTEP Auto Extrication
    • Live Fire Training
  • Related Links

An Introduction to the World of Fire Departments

Getting to Know Your Local Fire Department
Originally published in Plumas News in 2009
​by Tom Forster

 
How much do you know about your local fire department? This column will focus on helping you understand the various fire departments serving your community in Plumas County. Most are fully volunteer, while a few have funding for some full-time or part-time staff. All of them struggle with similar challenges, including recruiting, retention, training, and funding. Many departments have old and outdated equipment, often relying on grants as well as donated or used equipment to function properly.
 
The good news is that there are some very positive things happening in the Plumas County Fire Service and we will also feature those developments. We are not alone in having mostly volunteer fire departments. Of all the fire departments in America, 69 percent are fully volunteer. There are close to 800,000 volunteer firefighters today.
 
However, did you know that the first fire departments in America were private? Subscribers paid insurance companies in advance to operate fire departments and in return got a small metal ‘fire mark’ to attach to their building.  If the protected structure were to catch on fire, only that insurance company’s fire department would respond, even if another were closer.  There was no assistance provided by competing companies. This became a real source of controversy, and led to the eventual creation of public fire departments.
 
Benjamin Franklin created the Union Fire Company in 1736 in Philadelphia, one of the first public and volunteer firefighting companies in America. The UFC was an association organized for “mutual assistance.” In the 1884 book History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, John Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott described the organization:  “Each member agreed to furnish, at his own expense, six leather buckets and two stout linen bags, each marked with his name and the name of the company, which he was to bring to every fire. The buckets were for carrying water to extinguish the flames, and the bags were to receive and hold property which was in danger, to save it from risk of theft. The members pledged themselves to repair to any place in danger upon an alarm of fire with their apparatus. Some were to superintend the use of the water, others were to stand at the doors of houses in danger, and to protect the property from theft. On an alarm of fire at night it was agreed that lights should be placed in the windows of houses of members near the fire in order to prevent confusion, and to enable their friends to give them more speedy and effectual assistance.”
 
The Volunteer and Combination Officers Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs completed a national study on the status of the volunteer fire service a few years ago, titled “A Call for Action - The Blue Ribbon Report, Preserving and Improving the Future of the Volunteer Fire Service.” This report illustrated that while volunteer fire departments save local communities over $37 billion dollars a year, they are often under-funded and poorly equipped. Volunteer Fire Departments also have difficulty in retaining volunteers, and are in need of leadership training opportunities for those in officer roles.
 
This report recommended the following actions be taken:
 
At the Local level 
1.   Emphasize the importance of local support for this basic community service.
2.   Provide appropriate levels of funding for necessary safety gear and training.
3.   Engage in strategic planning that emphasizes volunteer retention.
4.   Use mutual aid to offset service and technical deficiencies.
5.   Use uniform incident management systems.
6.   Use performance measurement to measure and analyze response times, firefighting effectiveness, training and retention rates of volunteer fire departments.
 
At the State level 
1.   Emphasize the importance of the state government in developing and promoting disaster planning.
2.   Certify fire and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel to comply with basic training standards.
3.   Promote regional service delivery where local capabilities and technical expertise are weak.
4.   Provide statewide volunteer benefit programs to protect both the firefighter and employer from the risks associated with the volunteer fire service.
 
And at the Federal level 
1.    Work to produce a national climate encouraging individuals to volunteer within their local communities.
 
With those recommendations in mind, how are we doing at the local level?  Stay tuned for more on the status of our local fire departments.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Fire Departments
    • Beckwourth FPD
    • Bucks Lake FD
    • Chester FD
    • Crescent Mills Fire Protection District
    • Eastern Plumas Rural FPD (& C Road)
    • Graeagle FPD
    • Greenhorn Creek FD
    • Hamilton Branch Fire Protection District
    • Indian Valley FD
    • La Porte FPD
    • Long Valley VFD
    • Meadow Valley FPD
    • Peninsula Fire Protection District
    • Plumas County OES
    • Plumas Eureka FD
    • Portola FD
    • Quincy FPD
    • Sierra Valley FPD
    • U.S. Forest Service, Plumas NF
    • West Almanor FPD (& Prattville)
  • Members Only Section
  • Awards & Recognition
    • Chief Robbie Cassou Instructor of the Year Award >
      • 2012 Tom Forster, Asst. Chief Plumas Eureka FD
      • 2013 John Gay, Captain Quincy FPD
      • 2014 Ed Ward, Chief Graeagle FPD
      • 2015 Frank Carey, Assistant Fire Chief Quincy FPD
      • 2016 Dony Sawchuk, Captain, Quincy FPD
      • 2017 David Schmid Quincy FPD
    • Steve Tolen Leadership in EMS Perpetual Award >
      • 2015 Peter Beck, Plumas District Hospital, retired
      • 2016 Ed Ward, Chief Graeagle FPD
      • 2017 Matt Brown & Sam Blesse, Care Flight REMSA
    • Chief Ronny J. Coleman, Honorary Member PCFCA
    • Recognition of Retiring Fire Chiefs
    • Special Recognition >
      • Mike Grant Plumas County Sheriff's Office
  • Inside the Fire House
    • An Introduction to Fire Departments
    • Why do Fire Departments provide Emergency Medical Services?
    • How Good is your Fire Department? A review of Rating Systems
    • What is the Plumas County Fire Chiefs Association?
    • Helping Each Other - what is Mutual or Automatic Aid between FD's?
    • The Little Dispatch That Could - Plumas County Sheriff's Office Dispatch
    • What's Required to Drive Fire Engines Legally and Safely
    • On Obtaining Newer Fire Engines
    • Recognizing Great Service!
    • What is a Firefighters Muster?
  • Biographies
  • Emergency Medical Care Committee
  • Firewise Communities
  • Former Fire Departments
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Group Calendar
  • Join Us - We are Recruiting!
  • Major Fires & Incidents
    • 2013 Pizza Factory Fire, Quincy CA
    • 2015 Ponderosa Bowling Alley, Portola CA
    • 2017 Minerva 5 Incident, Quincy
  • Memorials
    • Chief Tom Forster, Plumas Eureka FD
    • Chief Andy Anderson, Quincy FD
    • Richard Bruce "Dick" "Specs" Matheny, USFS
    • Sparky Cassou, Quincy FPD
    • William "Bill" Floyd Hopman Quincy FPD
    • Steve Tolen, Quincy FPD, PDH, EMCC
  • Partner Law and Related Agencies
    • Plumas County Sheriff's Office
  • Plumas Sierra County Fair Firefighters Muster
    • 2016 Plumas Sierra County Fair Firefighters Muster
    • 2017 Plumas Sierra County Fair Firefighters Muster
  • Quincy Fire Academy
  • The Quincy FPD Support Team
  • Regional Training
    • Fire Apparatus Driver/Operator 1A CFSTES
    • Emergency Medical Technician - 1
    • FSTEP Auto Extrication
    • Live Fire Training
  • Related Links