In the latest attempt to bolster the local fire fighter compliment the Carlyle fire department is calling for volunteers to join their team.
According to the town's fire chief Trent Lee the need for volunteers has grown over the years and said the department has put out calls numerous times. He pointed out that there are about 18 fire fighters on staff but stated many work in the oil patch on shifts and at any given time the amount of people available for quick response is limited. Lee explained that many people still have reservations about volunteering.
"A lot of people are either afraid that they won't have enough time or are afraid of the task at hand," he said.
The fire chief stressed that the department just needs to get more people and they can never have too many volunteers.
"Any amount of time you can give me is a huge advantage to the department and we don't throw you right into hard tasks. We need people to move equipment and to put hoses down, there are so many tasks, you have to learn your way up," he said.
Lee said there is a benefit to volunteering with the fire department as it provides one with the opportunity to learn a lot of life skills and said there many options for those with reservations about the more graphic side of job.
"There are so many things that happen behind the scenes, for car accidents some people say they don't want to see blood. Well there are so many things, there's traffic control, there's running hydraulic equipment, there's so many different things that have to be done that there's always something for somebody to do," he said.
He also highlighted there is an added benefit for younger people as it gives them experience and aids them in making a decision on where they want to go with their future.
"We had a few guys that joined up right out of high school and now they are working in the emergency services field and that was a decision they made after working with the fire department," Lee said.
In addition to the varied options available that working at the department provides Lee said the fire department has fantastic equipment and is a great working environment.
"Someday soon we'll have a new facility that we will be working out of where we will have some of the best training facilities around. We have a great department now, we just need more people to grow as we are getting busier down here," he said.
"We've been slowly working on it over the last six, seven years. My goal is to have a new facility within the next few years"
He said there are some months when the department receive zero calls but there are other months when the call volume is high.
"Last winter we had really poor highway conditions all winter so we were extremely busy with emergency calls out on the highway and this year being such a good winter we only had a couple calls out on the highway. It all depends on the weather and driving conditions," he said.
He said people who volunteer receive in house training and in some cases some people are sent to other facilities to receive additional training.
"If it's a big scene, big structural fire, guys get tired pretty quickly so we need people to help change out air bottles or transfer water from one truck to another and it's all in house training," he said.
Lee stressed that the fire department will not put volunteers into positions or in circumstances they are not comfortable with and urge people to come out and volunteer. Those interested can contact Fire Chief Trent Lee at (306)-575-8758.
