Service to The Community

“When you think of how we’ve evolved in serving our communities, it’s amazing,” says Deputy Chief Knapp. “We’ve evolved from having funeral directors donating old cots and allowing us to use hearses to carry out our wounded firemen during emergencies to becoming highly-trained emergency workers relied upon by the community in time of need,” continued Knapp.

Reaching the Community

“It’s all about reaching the community,” said Knapp. Once we reach the community, it’s all about the training and equipment. Our firefighters and EMTs must complete 240 hours of fire training and over 120 hours of basic emergency medical training before they are allowed to respond to any emergency. After completing this initial training and gaining some experience, our firefighters receive additional training in areas such as specialized rescue, hazardous materials response, and fire prevention activities.

High Training Standards

Furthermore, highly trained paramedics must now complete over 1,800 hours of training before providing advanced medical care. “Our people who go out on those runs, they care about the person placing that call, they know how important it is to everyone involved,” concluded Chief Knapp. And where better to house those people than a department historically dedicated to serving the future.