Wednesday, July 3, 2024
While acknowledging Jeremy Stills’ selection as Firefighter of the Year, Gatesville Fire Chief Billy Vaden echoed Stills' comments that it is a team effort that leads to success.
"There's no one person who makes things successful," Vaden said. "It's a collaborative effort and everyone's a part of it. We have 34 firefighters, and some are able to participate more than others. Our biggest problem is daytime help. The people who are off (work) are able to come in.
"It's hard to single out one group that does everything. We have some that are here on weekends or at night. Unfortunately, with volunteer firefighters it's getting to the point where we can’t get enough dependable help.
"When I started, this community had a lot more mom and pop businesses, and people knew how important it was for people to be available (to volunteer as firefighters)."
With some of the larger companies not based locally, it can be more difficult for people to have the time away that is needed to fill the role of volunteer firefighters, Vaden said.
"This role is very time consuming and not everyone has the time to be able to get here," he said. "What a lot of people don't understand is one day we'll run out of volunteers and we'll be forced to have professional firefighters."
That will be a much more expensive proposition for the city of Gatesville, Vaden said.
"You need about 15 (firefighters) to do it right, and even 15 can't handle the big things," he said. "It will cost about $2 million or ($2.5 million) to do that. That's a lot of tax dollars. What's important for people to understand is the volunteer fire department is saving them money, but that can't be sustained forever. One day people will have to pay for it (a full-time professional fire department)."
