Our command positions are not an elected or appointed position as you might find in a full-time fire department.
The department elects a Chief and Assistant Chief every year in December and those two decide on who their command staff shall be for the following year.
A: No, we don't and for a couple of reasons, but the more specific one is the water we would put into your pull. We fill our trucks with city water and considering water could sit in our trucks for months at a time it tends to get rusty.
A: Unfortunately this is usually not a possibility. We don't own the specific equipment for removing water from a residence or business. But we are more than willing to come out and check for any electrical fire hazards.
Absolutely! Please just get in contact with someone, ask for a date and time and we'll do our very best to accompany you. We're always here to inform and educate the public about us and how to be more safe at home and work.
First you must be 18 years of age or older. Next you can stop by the station and pick-up an application from any command personnel. We're typically at the station every Tuesday night from 7:00 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the second Monday of every month for our business meeting. Please contact us prior to attending this meeting so we're aware that you're coming.
As with many all volunteer departments, we do not have set hours we work or are at the fire station. Every member is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. So yes, at times we leave our jobs, leave our family gatherings and holidays or even wake up from our sleep to respond.
We have an available roster of 30 people and usually we're right at staff or just under. Currently we have 28 men and 1 woman on the roster.
Correct - In our department they are. Both are completely different agencies with different budgets, personnel directors, rules, regulations and standards. We do have firefighters who do both jobs, but each reports to a different person
We have a total of 6 trucks that belong to the department, but we truly have a total of 7 that are housed within the station. The EMS is part of the Parkview Memorial Hospital system and are not directly affiliated with Smith Twp or Churubusco Fire. We also have a Haz-Mat trailer that carries oil dry, sponge-like pillows for absorbing chemicals and fuels and a fair amount of shovels and brooms to assist with cleanup.
An article in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette stirred up some emotions within not only our department, but many surrounding counties as well when the evaluated volunteer departments. The response time for any incident in an all volunteer department will never be the same. But as that report showed, our department responds to 55% of our fire runs in under 6 minutes. That 6 minutes includes time to get into our personal vehicles, drive to the station, don our protective gear and board a truck.
The state requires that a vehicle equipped with a siren be officially designated as a fire response vehicle. There is a certain criteria the truck must meet and has to be certified and on file with the state to run sirens.
Please pull to the right in a safe area and stop. This will allow fire apparatus or other emergency vehicles adequate and clear lanes to safely and quickly continue its response.
On occasion, the fire engine and ambulance will be driving with lights and sirens and then suddenly turn them off--perhaps only to turn into a shopping center parking lot or side street. Be assured that when this happens it means we have received information through our 911 dispatchers that the caller or incident is no longer a dire emergency. It is what we call "being cancelled". Any or all of the apparatus may continue to drive to the call or perhaps some will return to the Fire Station, but we do not do it just to get to the store faster. "We promise"!
Leave the residence immediately in a safe manner and call 9-1-1. If you're calling about a CO alarm, please try not to open windows or leave doors open. It's better for you to leave the residence as it is, which allows a better opportunity to get a proper reading when we arrive. But again, leave the residence immediately and in a safe manner.
The Fire Department does not refill fire extinguishers. We even have to have a vendor refill our extinguishers. An approved and licensed vendor can by found in the Yellow Pages.
As a general rule there should be a smoke detector in every sleeping area, outside of every sleeping area, and one on every floor.