City of Lavon Fire Department

[FDtoLavon]

Imagine the possibility of Lavon having a self sustaining fire department.  A fire department dedicated to the city and not dependent on an outside Vol. FD.  Not all of you know this but the Lavon Fire Department is actually operated by Nevada VFD.  Nevada VFD has a hard time staffing this station so responses usually come from their Nevada location.  It sure would be nice to get a response from a station that is 100 yds away from my house than their other location which is 5 miles away.  The ambulance on the complete opposite side of Wylie will beat the FD in some occasions.  This is unacceptable to me.  What is the point of a first responder if they are not the first responder.  In a real emergency those first few minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

I know this sounds harsh but I am not bashing Nevada FD.  They have a lot of good guys.  They simply lack the VOLUNTEERS to effectively run out of this station.  I know Nevada VFD is trying to get volunteers, I have seen the flyers.   So what is the solution here?   Is it our fault as a community for not stepping up to help Nevada VFD and our fellow citizens in their time of need?  Maybe the city could look into taking over FD and staffing it part time?  This option would bring in trained firefighters from full time paid departments looking for part time work.  Do we pay to have Wylie FD for contracted fire service?  Their closest station is also 5 miles away and is staffed 24hrs a day. 

There are a lot of different possible solutions to this issue.  Would our taxes go up if we had payed guys or contracted fire service?  Sure they would.  I personally would rather pay the extra money to have someone there as fast as possible in an emergency.  I know this issue is probably not a big deal to most of you now, but when your house catches on fire or your son, daughter, mother, or father need life saving measures immediately.  I promise, it will matter to you more than anything.       
 

[The Admin]

I'm not sure how the contract is today, if any, but in the past, the Wylie fire department did help out in Lavon, and frequently beat the Lavon/Nevada fire department to the scene. Again, that is in the past, things may have changed since then.

[FDtoLavon]

I don't believe there is a contract but I could be wrong.  I have seen Wylie FD  beat Nevada VFD some of the time.  This should not even be close.  We have a firestation in our own back yard.  Why is Wylie the first to respond?  Don't get me wrong, I love to see them in our neck of the woods.  They are an ISO 1 rated fire department which is the highest you can get.  It sure would be nice if Wylie could build a station off of 205 somewhere.  With there ISO 1 rating, our insurance rates would go way down.  Plus, businesses are attracted to cities with that kind of rating.  Keeps their insurance down as well.  But, that is just a dream.

[FDtoLavon]

I again saw Wylie beat Nevada again today.  The ambulance beat the first responders by almost 10 minutes.  I sure am glad we have that station here for those blazing response times.

[The Admin]

That's one of the gotchas with volunteer fire departments. You have that extra overhead of the crew having to drive to the fire department first. While no one will argue that having a locally staffed 24x7 fire department would be nice, realistically, I think it will be many years before Lavon can afford it, unless they somehow get funding from another source. Lavon will need some fairly good size businesses to pull in the tax money to be able to afford a full time fire department. In the past, there was some gossip about a few companies that were looking at building in Lavon, but they were nothing but gossip at the time. I guess this is the price you pay when moving into a small community.

[FDtoLavon]

I'm not saying that Lavon needs to staff a fire station 24/7.  I would just like a response of some kind from within the city.  Not only do we have that additional time that it takes for the volunteers to get to the station.  We have to wait on them to come all the way from Nevada.  A Lavon Volunteer FD would be nice.  Although the fire engine says Lavon FD.  It is really Nevada FD.  An illusion. 

[LavonVoice]

If you believe that Nevada VFD is having staffing problems in Lavon, maybe you need to get out and apply and become a volunteer.  There are several members of Nevada VFD that live in Lavon and answer calls on a regular basis.  I don't see where your "illusion" is coming from.  The fire engine in Lavon says Nevada Volunteer Fire Department and "Lavon Station" on the doors, not Lavon FD.
 
There are numerous thing that can effect the response time of a Department.  In most cases of medical calls, the ambulance is always dispatched prior to the fire departments.  Since the ambulance is constantly staffed, they are able to respond quicker.  Nevada VFD is dispatched by Collin County Sheriff's office.  The only Departments that Collin County does not dispatch for is Plano, Murphy, Allen, Frisco, McKinney, and Wylie.  So with only a couple of dispatchers on duty at a time, it is very difficult for them to keep up with the call volume.  When a medical call comes in, they gather very basic information and then forward the call to either AMR or Wylie FD for the ambulance to be dispatched.  Normally, this means that the ambulance is dispatched first which gives them a major jump ahead in responding to the call.
 
All Fire Departments in Collin County have mutual aid agreements with each other that says they can call upon neighboring Departments if help is needed.  That is why sometimes Wylie FD, Josephine VFD, etc are also seen in the area.  Nevada VFD has had to respond into Wylie multiple times to assist on emergency calls as well.
 
When there are cities much bigger than Lavon such as Farmersville and Princeton that are still serviced by volunteer departments, I do not see Lavon going to a paid Department anytime within the next 20 years or more.  It will cost way too much money!  Even Rockwall is still mainly a Volunteer Department!

[just1voice]

I believe they have a number of people who live in Lavon working out of that station.  I see cars there all the time and hear the trucks heading to calls often.  A couple of them live in our neighborhood and are always up at that station for calls and training.   Those guys respond to calls from the Lavon station to calls in Lavon and the Nevada station takes calls from FM6 all the way to Farmersville.  They help each other out as needed and I know they go to calls in Wylie as well.   
Having a paid department in Lavon would be good, but due to the tax base we are probably many years from that.  Since the "volunteer" fireman from Lavon/Nevada all have to be trained and certified in EMS and Fire by the State, I am sure they would be the first guys to sign up for some pay and benefits.  Right now all they get is a very occasional "thank you" from a person in need that was helped in some form or fashion.

Did you know that they responded to over 400 calls last year?  That is more than one call per day and these guys all have full time jobs and probably family's as well.  That is also 400 times they put their life on the line for us in many ways.  I saw them directing traffic on a pitch black Hwy 78 a couple of months ago in the rain.  Talk about dangerous!   Not to mention the fires we have around here on a regular basis!  EMS calls with people that are sick, and have any number of diseases that they could catch themselves or spread to their own family.  Those guys are taking risks with every call.  Emotionally it must be hard as well, often dealing with people who have passed on and the distraught family members. 
And they do this for FREE!? 
We are lucky that we can find someone to do that job for US and ask nothing in return.  Everytime I hear a siren at 2 a.m., I am thankful that someone is there if I need them 24/7 and I don't care what the truck says on the side of it or where they came from.


Check out their web page...nevadavfd.org...Lots of interesting stuff there and very professional.

[Tex]

Well put, J1V!  That reminds me I need to thank the guys in the NVFD jackets I see around town.  Thank you to all of our volunteers!!
 
FTP