April 27, 1985

Daytime volunteers lacking

       New Whiteland is sending out appeals for help in the town newsletter.  Amity has sent community letters asking for volunteers.  White River Township is constantly plagued with a lack of manpower, and a shortage of personnel in Franklin the last few weeks has caused the city to shut down its municipal ambulance service.  Nearly all county fire departments at one time or another suffer from a lack of manpower during the daytime hours which hampers their fire fighting and rescue capabilities.  Some county fire officials worry if they will have enough manpower to fight a major fire during morning and afternoon hours while others say the mutual aid system that worked so well at Sunday night’s Franklin College fire would come through to assist them during a daytime fire.

         Dennis Capozzi, fire chief of New Whiteland Volunteer Fire Department, said finding volunteers for daytime crews has been a constant problem for most county volunteer fire departments.  Larry Tames, president of the Johnson County Firemen’s Association, said daytime volunteers are difficult to find because most people are at work during those hours.  For rural departments such as Needham or Amity, the fire department members are farmers working in the fields, and their response time is prolonged because they could be far from the fire station, Tames said.  New Whiteland is currently trying to recruit people who would be available for daytime calls for fire or rescue help.  Capozzi said he currently has less than 10 people who could fight fires or man the town’s rescue unit between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

         The town relies on calling for help from Whiteland Rural Volunteer Fire Department for assistance, but at times they are just as shorthanded, Whiteland Fire Chief Ranny Lewis said.  Whiteland has five people available during the day to fight fires, Lewis said.  Lewis admits there were times within the last 12 months when the department did not have enough manpower to fight a fire during the day.  “We’d call whoever we would need if New Whiteland didn’t have enough men to help us,” Lewis said.  “Every department in the county relies on mutual aid and we’ve never run into a problem getting help when we needed it.  Lewis said his department at times has taken to deputizing onlookers at fires who can then help firemen at a fire scene.  A deputized person wouldn’t actually get close to a fire scene, but would help with holding fire hoses or hooking up equipment, Lewis said; and the extra help free up firemen to concentrate on putting out the fire.

         Bob Henry, White River Township fire chief, said his department’s daytime firefighting capability is quite low.  Only four White River fire Department members responded to a noon fire Tuesday in Smith Valley.  One time last year Henry was the only man available for a fire run near Center Grove schools.  When such situations occur, Henry said he doesn’t hesitate to ask for mutual aid.  He said he was confident that if a major fire occurred in the township, he would get enough response from neighboring fire departments to put out the blaze.  “I don’t like to call for mutual aid, but right now that’s the way it is until we build up our roster.  We’ve tried all kinds of things but they haven’t worked too well,” Henry said.

         Franklin Fire Department is a paid department, but at times has its share of manpower problems.  Franklin fireman Bob Betts, who was in charge of the department Wednesday because Franklin officers were attending classes in Indianapolis, said fire protection is not a problem but manning the ambulance is.  Franklin fire department members will come in to fight a fire when assistance is called for, but a department policy says that when six or less people are available during a particular shift, the ambulance service is shut down, Betts said.  Calls for the ambulance that come through Franklin Police Department are given to AmCare or McAllister ambulance services, which charge money to transport people to the hospital, Betts said.  Franklin medic service is free.
 
 

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