New rigs in service soon
A report on local Fire Department and EMS
By FRANK BRADLEY Staff writer

Sentinel photo/Frank Bradley New fire trucks in town ready for action. Left to right: David Burnette, President of Volunteer Firefighters in Union County; Firefighter Andrew Burnette; Lt. Richard Jones; and Shift Supervisor and Firefighter Brent Long.

After a brief delay, the five new fire truck/tankers have arrived on the scene and will be put into service by next week, according to Union County Fire Chief Charles Worden.

As recently reported by the Sentinel, the new fire trucks will significantly increase the equipment capability of the county. Worden said the trucks will be assigned to Fire Station # 10 in Blairsville, and to fire stations in Suches, Owltown, Jones Creek and Ivy Log.

"The addition of these new trucks will more than double the department's water carrying capacity," Worden said. The advantages of adding the new equipment will not only afford better fire protection to residents of the county, but also be an important ingredient in improving the county's ISO rating, which means lower insurance costs.

"Most of the areas within the county will be within the five mile protected range of a station," Worden said. "The last time we had an evaluation of the department by the ISO rating service was in the late 1990's," Worden said. "At that time we only had five fire stations and much less equipment, now we have 12 stations. We still have some older equipment that will eventually need replacing, but it's currently in good mechanical shape," he added.

Above: Anthony Olson "Chico the Clown."

Worden said that in order to get a reevaluation of the county's fire department, they have to show that a significant improvement has been made with respect to equipment, water supply and manpower. He said he expects to have a reevaluation within the next year to a year and a half.

The Union County Fire Department has nine paid employees and between 80 and 90 volunteers, according to Worden.

"We need more volunteer manpower," he said, acknowledging that volunteer recruitment is getting "tougher and tougher." Worden suggested two reasons why this is so:

"It's a tougher economy," he said. "People are putting in a lot more working hours at their jobs and may have two or three paying jobs. Also, the training requirements for volunteers has increased. It's almost equal to those of professional (paid) firefighters," he said.

Below: Lt. Fortenberry.

Worden had nothing but praise for the county's volunteer firefighters.

"They are very dedicated," he said. "They are doing everything they can to give something back to the community."

He said the beginning volunteer firefighters must be at least 18 years old and complete about 150 hours of training, including live fire training. Then each year they need another 60 hours of in-service training. Worden said some of the training is completed at the "burn center" in Clarksville and much of it is done in county at the fire stations.

While fire protection and fire fighting is serious business, the department has recently engaged the services of a clown. Actually, Anthony Olson has been a firefighter for five years, but in March he went to clown school at Georgia's Fire Training Center in Forsyth. to become more effective in teaching fire safety to children and to the public. Already, Chico the Clown has conducted classes in the public schools as well at county nursing homes. Olson is also training a dog "Sparky" to help teach classes by teaching children the basics of "Stop, drop and roll," as well as how to dial 911 by using his paws on a floor mat.

Sentinel photo/Frank Bradley Charles Worden holds one of many model firetrucks he's collected since 1984. Worden has been Union County Fire Chief for 14 years and EMS Director for 11 years.

In his capacity as Director of Emergency Management, Worden said the county has gotten $200,000 in grants through the national Homeland Security agency, which went to purchase a disaster trailer equipped to handle major man-made or natural emergencies.

"With the specially equipped trailer we can handle up to 150 victims," Worden told me. He said the lesson of Hurricane Katrina was that communities had to be able to take care of themselves for the first 48 to 72 hours after a disaster hits. He said the department also conducts on average two to three full-scale drills each year involving personnel from lawenforcement, EMS, the Fire Department, the hospital, the Red Cross, and Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA). A recent drill also included evacuation of the detention center.

Also, next month, Lt Jeff Fortenberry will be conducting Citizens Emergency Response Training (CERT), which is a basic 20 hour class for volunteers throughout the county to help organize, assist and report situations within various communities in case a disaster hits. Fortenberry says there are already 42 volunteer signed up for this class and he expected another class to form next spring. He said it is part of a nationwide program to assist communities to help themselves in case a major disaster strikes. More than half to the counties in Georgia are involved in this program, according to Worden.

Worden stressed the importance of having the manpower, the equipment and the training all in place before a major incident occurs or a disaster hits.

"If you fail to train, you plan to fail," he said.

Sometimes, people look at us as reactive. Just sitting up here doing nothing, waiting for things to happen," Worden said. "But actually, we've become very proactive. "Our goal is to provide the best fire protection and the most responsive emergency available when something happens," he said. "We have to be trained and ready to meet any emergency."