1 year of Duty Crew

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Today is an exciting day for us at Little Creek Fire Company. It marks 1 year that we have been able to maintain a 24/7 all-volunteer duty crew. Our one-of-a-kind program is a model of progressive thinking for today’s volunteer fire service. Originally started to minimize exposure to members because of COVID-19. The program has been accepted and supported by the membership. On average 51 members cover 4,203 hours a month. Over the course of the last year, we have handled 518 incidents. 366 by the Duty Crew and 152 General alarms. Members covered a grand total of 50,434 hours in the same year. We also have been able to maintain a 20-person average on general alarms. Which was a concern when we placed the crew in house. Reviewing the last year, the membership has been through a lot to make it successful. The Fire Service in general does not like change and this program had lots of challenges, detractors and push back since its inception. Some of it internal but a lot of it external. Presented with some of these challenges our membership continued to press forward. Never giving up and always looking out for the general public and every one of them understood the huge benefit of having a crew in house and available. Without the dedication of the membership this could not have been accomplished. Often the Fire Service will go down the rabbit hole of what the public needs based off what the Fire Service believes. We have tried to balance what we perceive as the need vs the want from the public. We continue to review our operation to not only include this program but others to ensure that we are providing the best service possible. This includes daily trainings in addition to our regular weekly training nights. Allowing the membership to have a voice to float ideas about operations and giving them a chance to vet them out also has been a big positive of this program.

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