BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE: This feature spotlights the serious need for volunteers at the Elmore Fire Department. However, most all volunteer departments are struggling right now. If you have the time and desire to serve your community, there are multiple ways to help the fire department. Contact the department nearest you to see how you can be of assistance.
The Elmore Fire Department will be out in neighborhoods in Elmore Thursday evening between 6-8 p.m. knocking on doors. They are not asking for money, but searching for volunteers, both male and female, to join the department due to a critical need.
Elmore Fire Chief Brandon Cardwell said his organization has lost members recently for a variety of legitimate reasons, but it is taking a serious toll on their ability to serve the public, and with response times.
“We have lost members for various reasons. Some moved away, didn’t have time, new jobs ect.,” Chief Cardwell said. “But overall volunteerism is down for everything and Covid has definitely not helped with that.”
Chief said that volunteer departments struggle in normal situations, especially during the day when those who work standard daytime hours are at work.
“We are fortunate that on any structure fires we assist (other departments) and are assisted by our neighboring departments. However, even when four departments show up we are still very limited with manpower,” he said.
One serious example occurred this week on Nov. 8.
“We had a house fire on White Road at 3:45 p.m. Due to most people still being at work the first actual fire truck with water that arrived was from Holtville followed by Deatsville and Coosada. I was the only person from Elmore who happened to be around at the time of the call but I had my son. We did end up with three more members from Elmore eventually but it was after they drove from work in Montgomery.”
Cardwell said there is a misconception by many that if you volunteer for a fire department, you have to automatically go into burning buildings as part of that service.
“We can use anyone 18-years-old and older who wants to volunteer as long as there are no medical or criminal issues preventing them from being on the department,” Cardwell said. “We can use people who only want to learn to drive and operate the trucks (must be 21). We can use people who only want to assist at support on scenes. Support personnel do things like setting up an area for the firefighter to rest when they come out of the fire, changing out the air bottles for those fighting fire, passing out water to personnel on scene, getting equipment off the trucks and staged for use on scene, filling out paper or electronic reports on scene, helping with truck maintenance and cleaning, helping with record keeping, and many other things.”
Cardwell said the department will train anyone who wants to learn any specific task and offer certification through the Alabama Fire College for anyone who wants to become a certified firefighter.
If you are interested in volunteering, your help is great needed. You can contact the Elmore Fire Department through their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/elmorefire
You can also stop by the department on Thursday nights, which are training nights, at 7 pm and talk to members of the Elmore Fire Department. The address is 1275 Alabama Hwy 143. There are plenty of positions that don’t require you running into a burning building. All positions are extremely important.
