New Volunteer Fire Department Proposed in McMinn

A community meeting in McMinn County got heated tonight as residents discussed where they will get help in an emergency- and how long it could possibly take to get it.
If approved by the McMinn County commissioners, new volunteer fire department called the North McMinn County Fire and Rescue Team would serve District 9.
McMinn County commissioner, J.W. McPhail says the new department would shut down Union Grove Volunteer Fire Department.
McMinn County Resident Margaret McCowan was outraged to hear that at Monday night's meeting, and says her loyalty lies in the department which is about 35 years old.
McCowan says, "The fire hall and the volunteers that work there- they have been more than outstanding over the years."

Commissioner McPhail says anyone that is a qualified responder would be welcome to join the new department.
Union Grove firefighters like Ray Stewart say they are qualified, but since their secretary- who's now facing felony charges- had been dishonest and with funds and paperwork, they are having a hard time proving it.
Stewart says, "All of us went to training. We were all there with these other guys. We paid our money."
Commissioner J.W. McPhail says the certifications aren't the missing paperwork. He says the water utility company recently put locks on fire hydrants because the correct paperwork was not being filed through Union Grove to be able to use that water.
McPhail says that's a problem because in order to fight a fire, "you've got to have water."
If approved the new fire department would provide fire and emergency medical services.
Phillip Waller says he is a certified first responder and he hopes to work for the new North McMinn Fire and Rescue Team if it works out.
"We need somebody over here- We need them immediately," Waller said.
Union Grove Fire Chief Alvin Shoemaker in McMinn County say since the County recently removed two fire trucks from them, they have been unable to respond to at least four emergency calls. Other nearby fire departments are helping Union Grove respond to emergency calls like those in the meantime- but those departments can be up to 15 minutes away from an incident.
McPhail said the matter will be voted on at the next McMinn County Commissioners meeting on February 16.

[@crissreznor]

2:05. Possibly the saddest looking fire station I have ever seen

[@tedgrant1865]

Welcome to rural America

[@greyhound531]

You may just have a "shack" but clean the bitch up for god's sake. My dept runs out of an old machine shed, but the grounds are clean, and the siding isn't falling off.. Damn have some pride..

[@LifeOfMateusz]

They work with what they have

[@LifeOfMateusz]

@@tedgrant1865 most volunteer departments don’t have shacks for firehouses but ok.

[@joinakshar2186]

Those are the kind of people that know how to improvise and work with what they have and not complain.

[@trucker9130]

I wouldn't step foot near that department and that's bad coming from a fellow first responder

[@leefisher.styrenemarine5566]

That fire hall looks like a shed in somebody's backyardI'd be too afraid to park a truck in there for fear it might collapse on top of the truck

[@alexandermakrianis]

No kidding, I was wondering why they had so much junk sitting out front. Does it also double as a junkyard?

[@griffinkline2912]

So sad to even think of putting locks on hydrants tell the mayors house is on fire

[@jasonding5213]

I'm happy to be a fireman it's the best thing anybody could ever do I hope there's more people out there that would love to do things like that

[@howardc.7649]

Wonder what happened. sounds like a sleezy paper pusher started some problems.

[@1stresponsevideo]

Locks on fire hydrants are we still in the USA?

[@Medievalfan94]

can someone explain me the organisation of american firefighting? In Germany we have laws that specify that every community has to come up with a fire department to protect its citizens. This is mostly done by volunteer departments, one for each village or town. So you have bigger ones in town with some special vehicles like an aerial ladder and technical rescue engines and smaller ones in villages with one or two small pumper engines. Usually you have career departments in towns bigger than 100k citizens, and most of these departments rely on backup through volunteer departments when shit hits the fan. But all of them are funded through tax money and none of them are privatised. I dont see bigger departments in the US. You seem to have many many smaller departments with like four vehicles at max but distributed all over the city. And all of them seem to work independent of each other and then you have even smaller departments in villages which seem to be a whole other organisation and not be paied for by the local government but more or less depend on donations or funding through a company. And they seem to work more like a company than an authority. It seems so complicated and loaded with old strucutres and traditions and the need of making contracts with companies that provide water instead of being in the position of an authority which the companies need to provide what they need by law.

[@spenceryambrich3899]

UsefulMuffinCat so here in the State's Fire and EMS service for that matter all have special so-called flavors depending on what part of the country you're in. For the most part in larger cities career departments will have multiple stations with different kinds of equipment spread throughout their District. but other parts of the country may share a countywide fire department with one single station for an entire County with up to a 45 minute response time to the outer reaches of that County. In my County there are 43 fire stations 22 firedepartment and about one-third of them are single station volunteer departments. The fire service in the United States is hard to understand as a single unit. From state-to-state fire service can change in many many ways.

[@MrMcbear]

75% of all departments in the US are volunteer.. A lot of these smaller departments are very rural. The U.S has much larger spans of land between towns the Europe does. We do have big departments in cities and densely populated area. Check FDNY, Chicago Fire Dept, Philadelphia Fire Dept etc. My department serves a 48 sq mile town and we have 4 engines, a ladder, rescue, utility, 2 brush trucks. And we have a sister company that serves the far end of town since they're about 10 minutes away.

[@jimmypearce9323]

Karma: If one of those who are against the FD....locking the fire hydrants.....happen to have a fire....too bad...so sad....maximum smoke.

[@stetsonrodrigo1403]

I know Im randomly asking but does anyone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid forgot my password. I would love any tips you can offer me

[@kristopherangel2307]

@Stetson Rodrigo Instablaster :)

[@stetsonrodrigo1403]

@Kristopher Angel I really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now. I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later with my results.

[@stetsonrodrigo1403]

@Kristopher Angel It worked and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy! Thank you so much you really help me out !

[@kristopherangel2307]

@Stetson Rodrigo glad I could help :)

[@Leaferr]

I didnt even know 360p quality was possible after 2012 but here we are.

[@spectrumboy6103]

wow... people are evil... they are just trying to help their community, and unwanted chaos is happening!! i hope things get resolved for the fd, and they can return to normal and continue saving lives and putting out fires

[@Sea-Bass]

Wait until the first lawsuit, those locks will disappear.

[@danielwalker8503]

the elected officials need to stop screwing with the fire service and get down to get other things done that need to taken care of

[@jasonding5213]

I say you do it the more firefighters we have the more emergency responders that we have so let's do this who cares how much it costs a human life is worth more than that let's start saving lives and showing up for emergency calls let's start doing this and be better for your towns we need important people to respond

[@slackjawedyokel1]

big fish /small pond mindset

[@Bobby-y9n1z]

Looks like junk hard sand

[@tonychaseiamnotgaynotnever2043]

Indianapolis Indiana