Current Staffing
Did you know there is only one fire truck staffed full-time in Lincoln County?
Lincoln County Fire Protection District covers 163 square miles of Lincoln County with four stations. Station 1 in Troy is staffed with a full-time crew of 4 firefighters, 24 hours a day and the remaining manpower comes from volunteer firefighters.
Even though we have several fire trucks at station 1, we only have 4 firefighters to staff one truck. The crew will switch to the other trucks depending on the type of call. For a large commercial building we may need the ladder truck or for a brush fire we will use a smaller brush truck.
Additional Firefighters
Prop Firefighters will allow us to hire additional firefighters to staff a fire station in Moscow Mills 24 hours, 7 days a week. Currently Fire Station 2 in Moscow Mills is staffed by volunteer firefighters who respond from their home, to the fire station and then to the emergency scene. During an emergency it often takes 8-10 minutes for a fire truck to leave the fire station if volunteers are available.
Out of the 1,754 calls in 2019, a volunteer fire truck from station 2 was able to respond to 72 calls.
Firetruck Will Remain In Troy More
Currently the fire truck that is staffed full time in Troy responds to emergencies in Moscow Mills. Hiring additional firefighters to staff the Moscow Mills fire station will decrease the need for the fire truck in Troy to respond to Moscow Mills. This will allow the fire truck to be in Troy more, reducing the response times throughout the district.
Overlapping Calls
In 2019 23% of our calls were “Overlapping” meaning we received an emergency call while firefighters were on another call.
This creates an increase in response times, inadequate staffing on the overlapping calls and the need for us to call surrounding districts to assist. Hiring additional firefighters would allow us to reduce response times to the overlapping calls and ensure there is adequate staffing available for your emergency.
Volunteer Firefighters
Our district currently has 26 volunteer firefighters. Due to employment and family commitments not all 26 firefighters are always available!
In 2019 our district had 29 volunteer firefighters and responded to a total of 1,754 calls. Out of the 29 firefighters only 9 were able to make 70 calls or more and only 1 was able to respond to 175 or more of the calls.
Proposition Firefighters won’t eliminate the need for volunteer firefighters. We will still need to rely heavily on our volunteer firefighters.
Not Meeting Industry Standard
In 2019 our district averaged 3.9 firefighters per call. Many calls require more firefighters than this. The National Fire Protection Association which provides science/research based industry standards says we should have at least 15 firefighters on scene within 8 minutes of a small house fire.
Proposition Firefighters would bring us closer to meeting the industry standard. Additional firefighters would allow us to rescue trapped victims and extinguish fires faster, reducing property damage.