An administrative five-alarm went off in one of Summers County’s Volunteer Fire Departments.
According to the public relations specialist with the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office, Tim Rock, Summers County Volunteer Fire Department, Station 13, voluntarily closed over an administrative error involving workers compensation.
This closure took place on February 1. Fortunately, this type of situation is something the fire departments in the county are prepared to handle. Thanks to that preparedness, Bill Costomiris, fire chief at the Talcott Fire Department, says the problem was quickly remedied and Station 13, on Route 20 next to the state police headquarters, was able to reopen at midnight on February 3.
Volunteer fire departments are run as non-profit businesses with a lot of rules, regulations and requirements. This includes all the regulations in place to fight fires with certified and maintained equipment from air tanks to tires on trucks.
Each fire department also has daily operating expenses, like any business, from rent or mortgage payments, phone, water, electric bills. They also have expenses for any business in the state, like paying into the workmen’s compensation program even though VFDs are staffed by volunteers who aren’t being paid for their service. They do all of this with very little funding.
These emergency responders race time to fight fires in their designated regions and, additionally, when called out for assistance when needed by other fire departments responding to emergencies.
Wednesday night was an example of the type of blip that could’ve been disastrous. A fire broke out on Zion Mountain and Station 13 was to remain closed until midnight. The call came in at around 10 p.m. Costomiris said, “fortunately, Station 13’s fire chief also serves as a firefighter with another fire department and was able to join the other firefighters on the scene.”
Talcott Fire Department and Forest Hill Fire Departments responded to fight the fire. Two hours later, Station 13 was allowed to re-open.
Ray Pivont, chief of the Hinton Fire Department said “this is the first time we’ve had a situation like this where a fire department was closed (temporarily) and a fire broke out during that brief period.”
Pivont said other fire departments filled in and everything worked out with plenty of trucks.
“There are mutual agreements between fire departments and they tried to help as much as they could,” Pivont said
The administrative issue was quickly resolved, but when it arose Station 13 quickly took action and voluntarily closed down. The station continues to work tirelessly to protect the community.
As Costomiris emphasized, everyone makes mistakes and administrative errors or overlooked bills can easily happen. That’s why they have emergency funds and plans in place to handle these situations. VFDs have a lot on their plates, work on a tight budget, and “it happens” sometimes, Costomiris said.
Running a tight ship poses challenges for volunteer fire departments and The Hinton News will be spotlighting these challenges in forthcoming stories.
