As much as our modern society has precautions and systems to prevent fires, they still happen, even in the wealthiest of areas.
This is evidenced by the massive wildfires in California, specifically in the Los Angeles area, where over 180,000 people (the population of Lycoming, Clinton, Sullivan, and Union counties combined!) had been evacuated from their homes.
The multiple wildfires have covered more than 54 square miles, destroying thousands of homes and other structures, and worst of all, at least 25 people have died as a result of these fires.
Much of this could have been prevented had LA Mayor Karen Bass not cut the city’s fire department by $17.6 million in her 2024-25 fiscal year budget. (She originally wanted to make it a $23 million reduction but ‘compromised’ on $17.6 million.)
Disaster tends to be a very loud wake-up call. One hundred fifty years ago, the Williamsport Bureau of Fire was established after a devastating fire that destroyed much of the city’s center. Throughout the county, 29 volunteer fire companies respond to an incredible number of emergencies.
To be prepared for these disastrous events, it is extremely important for firefighters to be trained within their own department and know how to work together as a team with other departments in dealing with these emergencies.
I wrote about one such training event in March of last year relating to special lithium battery fire training for the county’s fire companies. This was presented by Mike Monaco, a former member of the Fire Department of New York and now a hazmat specialist with the FDNY.
Training such as this is vital, but it also is not free.
The Lycoming County volunteer fire companies and the Williamsport Bureau of Fire all need money to operate their vehicles and provide the necessary gear and supplies for a wide variety of emergencies. It is common sense for all the fire companies to have the same training on new conditions such as lithium battery fires.
Yet, just as important is the training that each of these first responders needs to ensure that everyone is on the same page when an emergency comes about. Thus, it is not enough for them to know how to work as a team within their own department; it is just as vital that these companies know how to work together when needed.
This is what brought Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Company Chief Todd Winder to the Lycoming County Commissioners regular meeting on January 10th. He presented them with a ‘glitch’ in the county budget that has not been rectified in a number of years.
Chief Winder noted that the West Branch Firemen’s Association (WBFA), of which Winder is the current president, is the organization that coordinates these county-wide activities for the fire companies. Winder brought to the commissioners’ attention that WBFA has been excluded from funding county-wide fireman training for several years. He noted that the $15,000 that had been in the budget for a number of years in the past has disappeared since 2022. Winder questioned the commissioners why the most recent budget fails to fund their requests when, in his words, “there were many outside agencies that have been provided funding by the county taxpayers for items that are not even close to comparing with the importance of the WBFA is tasked with providing.” What was also frustrating to Chief Winder was the fact that their funding requests mysteriously disappeared totally.
Chief Winder explained to the commissioners that given that the WBFA is not a 501(c)(3) organization because it is composed of the fire chiefs of the county’s fire companies and thus could not technically be a non-profit organization, their one and only source of income is from the county government itself. He summed it up in his conclusion, “The West Branch Firemen’s Association has no means of income outside of the County budget. We are not a taxing authority, yet we are challenged with providing some of the most important items within the public safety portion of your budget, and that is for the training of new firefighters and the continued training of the dwindling numbers that we have to protect those who choose to live, work, and play within Lycoming County.”
To the commissioners’ credit, they listened intensely and interacted with Winder for nearly a half hour to get all the facts concerning this situation. I believe that something will definitely be done related to this issue.
