SEELEY LAKE – It has been widely reported that nationwide there is a shortage of volunteer emergency medical technicians (EMT) and firefighters. While Seeley Lake Fire Department does have a paid chief, district administrator and facilities manager, it relies heavily on volunteer responders to cover calls.
Social media posts sharing information, raising concerns and asking questions about the Seeley Lake Fire Department response are becoming more common. The Beery family attempted to engage the Fire Board at their April meeting raising questions about the response they received April 6.
Seeley Lake Fire Chief Dave Lane acknowledges that more volunteers are always needed. However, he said it is difficult to recruit in a community with very few new people moving in and when information being shared on social media about the Department is not true. It undermines the Department and diminishes community support.
* * * * *
Since September 2014, the Seeley Lake Fire District has employed a full time paid chief who has been a certified paramedic. Lynn Richards, the current District Administrator for the past 11 years, has been a volunteer with the Department for 18 years and a certified EMT for 17. There has also been a part time paid facilities manager that is currently a certified EMT.
In January 2017 there were 22 volunteers, 14 of which were EMTs and eight that were certified to enter a burning structure. This was up from 18 volunteers, the lowest number of volunteers since September 2014.
At the beginning of November 2017, the District had 24 volunteers including 16 EMTs. During a five month period from November 2017- April 2018 under interim chief Michael Greer, three volunteer officers were terminated: one of the fire captains with 17.5 years on the Department and EMT certified since 2006; a medical crew chief who had been an EMT since 2007 and was certified in Advanced Life Support with 10 years on the Department; and the second medical crew chief with seven years with the Department and was certified as an EMT in 2013.
Currently there are 19 volunteers on the Department's roster, 17 of which Lane considers active. Many are dual medical and fire responders with 12 nationally registered EMTs and three volunteers certified to enter a burning structure. To make up for this shortage of interior trained firefighters, the Department relies on mutual aid with Greenough/Potomac and the Swan Valley.
Lane would like to see a roster of at least 30 with at least eight trained to enter a burning building.
"If we could do it ourselves and not rely so much on mutual aid, that would be perfect," said Lane. "But we are not there."
The Seeley Lake Fire District call volume nearly doubled from 169 calls in 2005 to 332 calls in 2017, the year of the Rice Ridge fire. While calls were down to 261 in 2018, 2019 is up 10 calls from 2018 as of the end of March.
"We need volunteers," said Lane. "We are covering the calls [never missing one since he has been chief] but people are going to get tired and need a break. If they take a break, it works the rest of the crew harder."
Since Lane started in April 2018, five people have left the Department. Lane said they either moved or had a lifestyle change, not because of the dissatisfaction with the Department.
"People are moving away to do other things but there aren't people moving into Seeley Lake," said Lane. "I think a large part is lack of affordable housing and no employment."
While a lack of new faces in the community shrinks the pool of possible volunteers, Lane said it is difficult to recruit when there is the lack of positivity and community support for the Department. He attributes this to social media posts that attack the Department without fact.
Lane's perception of those posting on social media is they are not treating the Department fairly. He refuses to play into the drama by addressing anonymous posts and asks that anyone with concerns come and talk to him, the current volunteers or bring it up at the board meeting.
"I would appreciate the opportunity to give factual statements," said Lane. "Because we don't know who those people are, we are not going to put a blanket statement out there. If people are willing to make those unfair or unfactual statements then anything I say will be attacked fact or not."
* * * * *
The "Did You Know?" is a public Facebook page with multiple administrators, all of which can post anonymously. Issues raised related to the Department include multiple pages for the same call, lack of or no response and concerns with the Fire Board members. Seeley Lake resident Michael Triplett is one person who has put his name on this posts.
Triplett was a volunteer with the Seeley Lake Fire Department for nearly two years, from the fall of 2015 until 2017. Within five months of joining, he started an EMT class. He became a licensed EMT with the Department in the summer of 2016.
When he was on the Department, Triplett said the expectation for volunteers was everyone responds to calls whenever possible. Two firefighters and two EMTS were on call seven days a week from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and on weekends. The goal was to be on scene within 10 minutes of the call.
"That is not possible [for every place in the District] but that was our goal," said Triplett. "The rest of our goal was to respond somehow to every call - get somebody on scene so we know what is going on and show them we cared."
Triplett uses social media to raise questions and concerns about the Department because he doesn't feel the chief or the board will listen to a "disgruntled ex-volunteer." He said when he tried to raise concerns with Interim Chief Michael Greer, his name was slandered around town and law enforcement came to his house to tell him to stop bullying.
Triplett said because of Greer's attack on his personal character on a public Facebook page he sent a letter addressed to the District Board of Trustees and Greer dated April 8, 2018 asking that his image and name be removed from all training and promotional material, Facebook posts, the website and remove his name from the Firefighter of the Year plaque that hangs in the front office. He received a certified letter from Greer April 25 stating his letter was received and "we are happy to oblige. We agree that removal of any association or reference of your involvement with the department is in everyone's best interest." Triplett questions if the board ever read the letter because he was never contacted.
To raise awareness that the Department is not what it used to be, Triplett has posted on his personal page and engaged in the public Facebook page "Did You Know?" as himself. He has called out the Department for their slow response times to night and weekend calls, lack of responders and questionable use of taxpayer dollars.
"The public is living under the assumption that everything is just fine and when we call 9-1-1 someone is going to come," said Triplett. "Something needs to be done or awareness needs to be brought up because someone is going to end up dying over this. The Department can think it is slander but it is public information being brought to light."
Triplett acknowledged that responders are volunteers and more volunteers always help. However, he said new EMTs and firefighters that have the training may not have the experience. They may hesitate if they are the only EMT responding to an Advanced Life Support situation.
When he was with the Department the chief responded to every call when he was close enough. If he was out of town there was always a plan in place and another officer was in charge.
"Maybe if they hadn't ostracized [and terminated] so many of the long time people that had experience – if a temporary chief wouldn't have been allowed to make permanent changes - we would have thought harder about coming back when the situation changed," said Triplett.
"Someone is going to die because they didn't respond, or someone's house is going to burn clear to the ground because they didn't respond," said Triplett. "Let's get some awareness out there and get this changed before something that drastic happens."
Many of these same concerns about response times, training and numbers of responders were brought by the Beery family to the Fire District Board's April 16 meeting. They questioned if a quicker response with more highly trained, prepared responders to their home April 6 could have changed their outcome. Nick Beery died April 10 in Missoula (full story starts on page 5).
"We don't know if the outcome would have been the same given better circumstances but for the rest of my life I will always wonder," said Barbara Beery, Nick's wife, to the Fire Board. "If speaking out will make this Department more proactive and save someone else's life in the future, we have succeeded."
* * * * *
"I try not to play into the tension," said Lane in regards to the social media posts. "I have a job to do and I have a community to serve and I have a great crew that is doing the best they can."
Most of the current responders live within five minutes of the station. Once a responder is on their way to station, Lane considers that a Department response. The Department uses a program called "I Am Responding" so Department members can see who is responding. Typically responders don't radio in to 9-1-1 dispatch until they are leaving the station with an apparatus.
Lane would like to see volunteers enroute from the station to a call in 10-15 minutes. The time it takes to actually get to a call depends on the location of the call.
"Because we are pretty rural and places are all spread out, it is hard to give an expectation of response time. I tell [responders] to be safe," said Lane.
Even though Lane has responded to more calls than anyone else in the Department, he does not respond to every call. If he is not available to respond, he said he communicates with the volunteers so someone is in a leadership role and the calls are covered.
"I'm human. I do as much as I can. I take one day off a week." said Lane. "I'm part of the community and I want the community to see that so that they understand that we all are human. Yes, I'm paid and I'm the only paramedic up here but you can't expect me to be a robot."
The station is staffed from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. on week days. According to the 9-1-1 Dispatch log since Lane became chief, the ambulance goes en route in less than four minutes when the station is staffed. The enroute time increases to more than eight minutes during the day on weekends and more than 13 minutes on night calls.
Prior to Lane, the enroute time for the ambulance from the station is within a minute. The average enroute time on the weekends for the ambulance was a minute and half faster and five minutes faster for night calls.
Lane feels the slower response times on night and weekend calls is due to the lower membership.
"We don't have the membership we had before which is why I'm saying we need more members so we can help those times. We are doing the best we can," said Lane. "I'm not going to try and explain anything because [the public] doesn't understand all the workings of the Department without being a member. If they think they can help then come get an application."
One of Lane's long-term goals is to hire three paramedics. This would provide the community with 24-hour Advanced Life Support service. He is taking steps towards this by increasing the revenue for the Department.
Lane said to guarantee 24 hour, seven day a week coverage with two responders would require six paid employees. With wages and benefits it would cost the District around $360,000. This is not in the budget.
Lane prefers a volunteer department because typically volunteers are part of the community.
"Those that serve their community usually give better care than someone who doesn't live here. But it is difficult when we don't have the community support," said Lane.
At their March meeting, the Fire Board approved the District increasing the mileage rate and 9-1-1 response charge when they don't transport.
"It costs us money to respond," said Lane. "We help the community as much as possible but if they start to abuse 9-1-1 and we become their only source for help, then we send the bill."
Lane feels this is a significant increase for the department without damaging the community and will indirectly help improve response times.
"I can have the increase in budget that allows us to do more for the volunteers for incentive [training, gear, stipends, etc]," said Lane. "The bigger the budget, the bigger the opportunity to get more staff or volunteers to ultimately improve our response times."
Lane said the Department strives to provide the state of the art equipment including new turnouts and new helmets and have improved current equipment to make it safer. Different programs are in place such as the respiratory protection program, annual physicals, local gym memberships and insurance benefits for volunteers. Lane added they have support from cooperating agencies so responders should feel more confident responding to calls.
Lane said most of the volunteers are continually trying to improve, attend trainings and get more certifications. While the Department often helps pay for the training, all the time is volunteer.
Lane wrote and the board approved a new policy including a list of expectations on and off duty that all members must sign. Only when volunteers meet the minimum requirements for an active member including the number of training hours, responding to calls and public events, do they receive anything more than a t-shirt to identify them with the Department.
An active volunteer on the Department is expected to volunteer at least 10 hours a month of trainings and meetings that does not include responding. In addition to working towards more qualifications, they must put in the time to maintain their certifications - sometimes having to go elsewhere for that.
"The volunteers have made their commitment and proven their commitment to the Department and the community," said Lane. "I want them to know that I appreciate everything everyone does for this department."
Lane said the members take a lot of pride in the department and the community, "I wish the community would share more support in that."
Reader Comments(0)