BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT -— When natural disasters hit or a house fire breaks out, 11 pagers send out a call to action.
Those who respond, the members of the Claremont Fire Department’s on-call force, are an essential — if often misunderstood — aspect of the region’s emergency response system, city officials say.
Following several inquiries into the city’s on-call fire department operations, officials briefed city councilors this week on the force’s staffing. According to Fire Chief Bryan Burr, the department is host to 11 all-volunteer firefighters — falling a single lieutenant short of full staffing.
“Call companies respond to brush fires, building fires, man-made and natural disasters including hurricanes and floods,” Burr said. “All on-call firefighters are also part of a mutual aid agreement in which we send aid to outlying communities.”
The on-call force separates into two companies, each consisting of a captain, a lieutenant and four firefighters. Over the last decade, staffing has remained consistent, but the total number of on-call firefighters dropped from previous capacities.
Unlike the city’s career firefighters, on-call firefighters are not required to meet as strict standards of training. For instance, while the city requires that career firefighters attain Firefighter II training within a year of their joining the department, no such requirement exists for the volunteer force.
National Fire Protection Association certifications for Firefighter II included several training requirements for rescue skills and fire suppression beyond those offered in the Firefighter I certification. All equipment used by the on-call firefighters also meets fire association standards and guidelines.
However, as Councilor Nick Koloski noted, himself an on-call firefighter, many of the on-call firefighters attend additional trainings outside of the basic requirements. Of the city’s on-call firefighters, a single firefighter is certified as a Firefighter I, five are certified as Firefighter II and three are certified as EMTs.
However, Burr said that on-call firefighter turnout has been a consistent difficulty.
“Since my tenure as a chief in January 2018, call forces have responded to 7 incidents, which included three structure fires… and the rest were mutual aid requests,” Burr said. “The attendance of those fires and responses, I calculated at about 30 to 35 percent attendance… there are many reasons why. It’s time of day and personnel in the area, work constraints and social event and family obligations.”
Burr did not have data immediately available on the attendance rate for the 24 responses in 2016 and 13 in 2017.
As Asst. Mayor Allen Damren noted, as industries shift and more people work outside of the city in which they live, getting high on-call turnout rates also becomes difficult as firefighters might be away from the area during the workday. Currently, there is no requirement for on-call firefighters to live near the fire station, whereas career firefighters must live within 15 minutes of the station.
“Response to calls is kind of akin to volunteerism in general,” Burr said. “People are busy during the day and with families… we’re apt to get more people to respond during the evening and early morning than we are during the day.”
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