How to Improve a Volunteer Fire Department

Members of volunteer fire departments are selfless servants of their community. They must be willing to run to the rescue of their community at a moment's notice. This means that the team must stay motivated and know how to react quickly.

Instructions

1. Evaluate all firefighting candidates for physical strength and medical health. These are important qualities if firefighters are to do their jobs effectively and keep the firehouse going.

2. Educate all firefighters on emergency medical procedure and public policies that affect their community. Hazardous material training is also a must since there are so many poisonous substances in our environment.

3. Train volunteer firefighters to perform their duties under extreme stress and exertion. Make sure they understand that these are definite components of their job. Continual education on these topic's will do the job nicely.

4. Participate in regular and routine fire drills to prepare for upcoming crises. Doing these routine actions over and over will make it more likely that firefighters will know what to do and how to do it when the time comes.

5. Teach firefighters to deal with and to recognize danger; both tasks are a big part of their job. Firefighters will get along better and do their job more effectively when they have this knowledge. These men and women are a much needed part of any community and they deserve appreciation; remember they are doing a difficult job in the best way they know how.

Tips & Warnings

• A valuable asset to any firehouse and a requirement of many these days is knowledge of fire investigation and fire code enforcement.