STEVENSVILEE- Smaller communities like Stevensville need volunteers to run their fire department to keep their community safe,there's a problem, there are not enough volunteers.
"The volunteer firemen, firefighter, fire gal is huge, it’s kind of the glue, the connecting pieces to the community. I mean they live in the community, they're members of the community and then they turn around and they serve their other community members," said Jeff Motley, the Chief of the Stevensville Fire Department.
Motley says for smaller communities that may not have as many resources as larger ones, having volunteers is critical.
"It is a need that needs to be met. Especially in today’s day and age when finances and dollars are tight and all that. Having a paid staff is really out of the picture for small communities. So the volunteer is what steps up and fills that gap," Motley said.
The town of Stevensville needs about 56 volunteers, they currently have 13. Most of the volunteers in Stevensville are either self-employed or work outside of the community, making the working hours very tight for the fire department.
"The more staff we have it shares the load, the more hands the more help, the easier and quicker all those things happen, it’s the same with any volunteer organization," said Motley.
As of right now, all the fire departments in Ravalli County are volunteers. For emergency calls, the fire department needs anywhere between six and 30 people.
"Typically for a CPR in progress call we feel we need at least six fire individuals on scene. That’s almost half of our department... for a structure fire, we need to have anywhere from two crews, a crew is four, so we need at least 8-12. Typically a fully involved structure were looking for 30 people," Motley said.
If you would like to volunteer, there are multiple ways to do so.
"We take support volunteers that do support work. That help us out doing the laundry, washing, turning out gear, cleaning the hall, doing paperwork, doing video work for us," Motley said.
Stevensville Fire Department offers certification training, which takes about four weekends. Training to become a volunteer fire fighter takes about a 100 hours.
