Rainelle Fire Chief Shawn Wolford recently told the Rainelle Town
Council recently that call have risen nearly 50-percent in the last five years, but the department is
"dangerously understaffed during daytime hours."
Wolford cited National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) standards that mandate a minimum of four (4)
fully certified Firefighters be on scene of an emergency incident.
"During the peak daytime hours, when about
70-percent of calls for Rainelle Fire Department assistance come, we often have at
best only two firefighters available."
Wolford said that the department
covers about 6,500 people living in an area of 110 square miles in Greenbrier
and Fayette Counties,
24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with only twenty-two (22) volunteer
professional firefighters on roster.
Approximately seven of those 22 are unable to respond to emergency calls
due to various issues, further reducing the Department's availability. Rainelle's population is about 1,500.
"The Fire Department is not just
for fires, it is truly an ‘all hazards' department," Wolford said. In 2011, the RFD responded to 247 calls for
service. Motor Vehicle Accidents
accounted for 66 calls, 33 were structure fires and 32 for hazardous
conditions/hazardous materials.
According to a National Volunteer
Fire Council (NVFC) formula, the Rainelle Fire Department's 5,000 hours of
service is valued at $1,616,000.
Savings to the community were $16,160 for each of the department's
firefighters. The Department savings for
each residence was $874, and for each citizen, $248.62.
Wolford described challenges facing
the Fire Department. In spite of being
awarded almost $400,000 in grants over the past four years, the Department is
seriously under-funded.
"The largest challenge, though, is
finding a way to have adequate trained firefighters available Monday through
Friday, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.," Wolford said.
The fire company also recently
received notification of a surprisingly substantial improvement in its
Insurance Services Office classification.
"Previously, we had been Class 6, and we were really trying to improve
to Class 5," Wolford explained. "But when we got the notification of our new
rating, it said the VFD is now Class 4. We were very pleasantly surprised."
Last summer, Rainelle became one of
only 30 fire companies in the state that can boast a Class 4 Insurance Services
Offices classification (ISO). A
community's fire department ISO rating is one of the main factors the insurance
industry uses to set premiums for residential and business properties.
The Rainelle Fire Department had to
upgrade equipment, put in lots of training hours and do a lot of record-keeping
to raise the rating to Class 4.
Mayor Andy Pendleton praised the
fire department for its accomplishments, saying, "The firefighters are unpaid
volunteers, but they put in a lot of time working for our citizens. They're
Number One in my book."
Chief Wolford presented a proposal
to Council entitled "Staffing to Provide Safe & Effective Fire Protection
Services for the Town of Rainelle
and Surrounding Areas." The proposal
calls for maintaining the department as a volunteer fire department while
paying two firefighters to be on duty during the peak emergency times that the
department is understaffed.
Mayor Pendleton told Council that
she and Chief Wolford had been in discussions about the fire department's
needs. "We must find a way to support
the Fire Department so that they are able to keep serving us at such a high
level," Pendleton said.
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