Fincastle has had an award winning volunteer fire department and hope to attract new volunteers.

Last week Fincastle Volunteer Fire Department sounded off in a letter to the Botetourt View. This week they are soliciting new volunteers:

By mounting an aggressive, proactive recruiting campaign that we’re now fine-tuning to further increase its effectiveness, Fincastle Volunteer Fire Department (FVFD) has turned the tide of dwindling membership that has challenged firefighting volunteerism in Botetourt County in recent years. Today we have 19 members on the roster, which represents nearly a 50 percent increase over the low of 13 just 90 days ago, and four or five more are waiting in the pipeline until we complete a by-laws change.

Until now, FVFD membership was limited to residents of FVFD’s “first-run” area. That was established in the days when there wasn’t the paved road network in the county that we have today, and was aimed at avoiding anybody needing to cover relatively long distances in the time-essential mode associated with incident-response associated with emergency calls, for the protection of both members and the public.

The change in the recruitment picture for FVFD is a result of our decision to offer two avenues of participation for volunteers instead of just the traditional “hear the siren/page, drop everything, and run” response. The new, added option for participation is through station staffing, scheduled in advance.

This, in turn, is made possible by the facilities provided in the fire station owned by FVFD. It is the largest in the county. The original section was built in 1985 on land that was part of the historic Ridgley Farm property owned by Lee and Paul Fitzgerald. An expansion in 2009 more than doubled the size to 16,000 square-feet.

Our volunteers use modern equipment, and have access to bunkrooms, an equipped workout room, showers, kitchen, large day room, and receive assistance in pursuing training.

FVFD is a department with a small but dedicated membership that ran 142 calls in 2012. Five are life-members, each with 20-plus years of service who are doing support functions. The other active members include one who recently returned from an active duty military assignment and five additional life-members, each with 20-plus years of experience.”

We need team players who can pass background and DMV checks. While all hours of coverage are needed, we want to concentrate on nights and weekends. We’re also looking for people with computer skills, and we do allow Junior Members. If you’re interested, call Fire Chief Henry Booze at 520-5152, or send us an email: fincastlefire@yahoo.com

–Submitted by Fincastle Volunteer Fire Department