Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: [email protected].
This is a semi-rebuttal to Randy Rieland’s Foothills Forum article in your Nov. 3 issue (“‘We’re getting thinner and thinner’: New data shows ranks of most active county fire and rescue volunteers down as service calls increase, force ages”). The newspaper’s hand-wringing headline and the apocalyptic implication of the imminent collapse of our volunteer fire and rescue system in his lead paragraphs is far from the case. There are three items in the article I would like to address.
I am the corporate secretary for the Washington Volunteer Fire and Rescue company (WVFR), and my wife, Barbara, and I have been associated with this organization since 1996. In 1996 and since, our aging demographic and Rappahannock youth leaving the county for careers not available here has been an urgent discussion at WVFR, the Rappahannock Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, Rappahannock News, and the county supervisors. Yet in this quarter of a century, there hasn’t been a single emergency request that volunteers have not answered. Not one! Part of the reason is that a significant number of our new members come not from county youth, but rather from newly retired individuals looking for a meaningful endeavor to fill their time and a connection with the social fabric of the county. Demographics are a problem, but we have been telling each other it’s a disaster for so long that no one questions it.
Second, Sean Polster’s statement quoted in the article, “The county pays for their emergency services, but doesn’t oversee them,” implies that the county provides all of the funding for Rappahannock fire and rescue services, and that the seven independent fire and rescue organizations run without oversight. Both implications are false.
Regarding oversight, the county and all seven emergency services companies signed the “County of Rappahannock, Virginia – Fire & Rescue/EMS Services Agreement” in February 2018. This agreement delineates the duties of the emergency services companies and provides for their oversight (but not control). The county monitors our compliance with this agreement and also requires every emergency services company to itemize and justify their operational expenses to the County Fire Levy Board for reimbursement. In addition, our medical and fire operations are very tightly regulated and supervised by the State. Virginia periodically inspects our facilities, apparatus, and procedures to be sure we are in compliance with their requirements. We submit detailed reports to the State for every single emergency call. This state oversight is all independent of any relationship with the county, and is required for every emergency service organization in Virginia.
Regarding funding, Rappahannock County provides funding to the fire and rescue services through two mechanisms: the relatively small County Apparatus Fund and the more substantial County Fire Levy Fund. For WVFR, the total funding provided by the county is much less than half of our annual revenues (30% last year). Other expenses, including purchase of apparatus (firetrucks and ambulances) and facilities and improvements are all funded by donations, fund raising, grants, and EMS billing. A new firetruck can cost three quarters of a million dollars and a new ambulance a quarter million. Volunteer fundraising activities underwrite a significant portion of the emergency services we provide to county residents that the county does not pay for.
The new county-employed medics have integrated very well with the volunteer services to provide emergency medical response. All of the county personnel are trained and certified medic-level EMTs and provide advanced life support (ALS) services; many volunteer EMTs have not trained to that exacting level and provide basic life support (BLS) services. The county personnel’s mission is to allow a volunteer ambulance to respond BLS without waiting for a volunteer medic, knowing that a medic will soon be on the scene to handle any ALS situation they may encounter. County personnel sometimes provide a more rapid response at night when it takes longer for volunteers to get up, dress, and get to the station.
My third point is that, contrary to the implication in the article, county personnel are usually not first on the scene (first on 36% of calls in October), mostly because they must travel farther than the more community-distributed volunteer service. According to the JLN report mentioned in the article, Rappahannock’s volunteer fire and rescue response times are on par with those in downtown DC. The nature of our volunteer services provides response times that would not be available in a centralized system.
So this note is to add a little perspective to your Foothills Forum article. Doom is not at our doorstep and our volunteer fire and rescue services are operational and generally healthy. The county and the Association are addressing the demographics issue and, operationally, the solution is working quite well.
The writer lives in Sperryville
Sign up for Rapp News Daily, a free newsletter delivered to your email inbox every morning.
Subtext
