Booker said there has been at least one confirmed strike. Hamilton County Emergency Management Executive Director Shane Booker told WRTV firefighters across the county, including in Noblesville, Carmel and Fishers, are investigating several possible lighting strikes. “It’s time for me to give back.Possible lightning strike on Brightwater Drive leaves one family displaced but no injuries. “I said to them, ‘Don’t thank me for joining, I thank you for the 27 years of fire protection you afforded me and my family in this town,'” Rice said. Rice shared his story, saying that he retired from a beverage operation and took up school-bus driving in order to keep on contributing to his community - and, after an unsuccessful run for a town justice vacancy, figured it was time to give volunteer firefighting a go. Rich Rice, who has lived in Manchester since 1988, started volunteering for the department a couple months after Freeland. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” Freeland said. Before the hot dogs began to be handed out during Saturday’s recruiting event, he took the time to give his wife and grandchildren a tour of the station grounds. Mike Freeland, retired from a Canandaigua-based factory, joined the Manchester department in November. Alex Colburn, of the Manchester Fire Department. “People might think they’re too old to join the fire service - ‘my knees are too bad, my back is too bad, I have a hurt shoulder’ - but there is no one job in the fire service,” said Lt. The multitude of ages of potential volunteers are welcome also. To do what they do takes a willingness to train, dedication and the desire to help out, Weidenborner said, putting extra emphasis on the time it takes to train. “We’ve done more structure fires this year than we have done in the last four years combined.” “This year is looking to be a busy year for us,” Weidenborner said.
The Farmington Volunteer Fire Association has 40 volunteers, and averages right around 400 calls a year - responding to everything from vehicle accidents and structure fires to CO2 alarms, plus the occasional false alarm. “You want to be worrying about safety, about protecting the public, and the short number adds a little extra stress to it.” “It’s nerve-racking when you get a structure fire - trying to make sure that you have enough people coming,” Weidenborner said. John Weidenborner, second assistant chief of the Farmington Volunteer Fire Association, noted that the most recent numbers suggest that the numbers have leveled, but the demand is still there. The total number of volunteer firefighters peaked at about 110,000 in 1990 in New York, but the number had dipped below 85,000 by 2010, according to the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY). Members discussed the requirements and the benefits that come with volunteering. The fire stations, including departments in Manchester, Farmington, Fishers, Richmond, Clifton Springs, East Bloomfield-Holcomb and Hopewell, opened their bay doors to the public, giving tours, demonstrating firefighting techniques and allowing visitors to try on turnout gear. In an attempt to boost those volunteer numbers, more than 400 fire departments statewide welcomed members of the community to tour their stations as part of RecruitNY this past weekend. To put it in perspective, Bowker said that approximately 3,000 people are served by the Manchester Fire Department, while fewer than 1 percent of them volunteer. “We can always use more volunteers,” Bowker said. If he ever saw anybody chasing his trucks today, he said he’d be quick to hand them an application to sign up. He was 28 when he signed up, and the now 67-year-old fire chief hasn’t quit yet. “I did that a couple times and they said, ‘why don’t you join?,’ so I said, ‘OK.'” “Even back then they were light-handed, so I’d get out and ask them how much hose they wanted pulled off the truck,” Bowker said. “Otherwise I’d follow the water, because the water would spill out of the tanks when they rounded a corner, so I’d say, ‘they must have gone this way.'” “If I could find the fire truck before they left the station, that’d be good,” Bowker said. MANCHESTER - Back before he became a Manchester firefighter, Jim Bowker, chief of the Manchester Fire Department, still had a desire to get involved when the fire siren sounded.īack in his younger days, if he heard the siren he’d hop in his car, track down the fire truck and follow it to the scene of the blaze. Fire Service Community Achievement Award.FASNY HELP Tuition Reimbursement Program.Past Issues of The Volunteer Firefighter™ Magazine.