We have received 547 alarms to date. That is an average of 2 calls per day.
Over 70% of these calls were medical calls, including motor vehicle accidents and transports.
Approximately 12% of these calls were fires, not limited to structure fires and wildland fires.
Our average response time was 15:00 minutes. This is important because we are an all-volunteer department, meaning our responders come from home most of the time to help their neighbors.
**We also cover over 9o square miles of Mason County, where traveling one end of our district to the other could take over 45 minutes.
So what does this mean to you?
It means that without paid staff to respond to emergencies, we may lose the ability to continue to provide this quality of service.
The training that it takes to be a qualified EMT in Mason County can take over 5 months to complete. We can't expect our volunteers to sacrifice their personal lives for that level of commitment.
The volunteer fire service model is becoming obsolete due to the increase in demand of fire departments everywhere.
Many of our volunteers do not live in district, meaning that they often come from work to the station to ensure that the vehicles and equipment are ready to respond.
If you can help, please come to the station and fill out a volunteer application. Spread the word about our fire department.
If you can't volunteer, there are other ways to help. We have many needs and do not have the paid staff to accomplish many of our goals.
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