Comments on: IRS Audit Results In Changes For Escambia Volunteer Firefighters; Some Forced To Resign

By: sniper

sniper — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:51:22 +0000

I like the idea of giving the volunteer stations back to their board. Worked for over 60 years before. It worked and no laws were ignored or broken. The county is broke, just got hit with a $78K bill, and now they are trying to entertain the idea of hiring 54 more firefighters… Makes perfect sense if you are a politician…business as usual.

By: Tax payer

Tax payer — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:24:53 +0000

Bob, E14 has a crew of 3 (career)

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 18:54:49 +0000

Station 13 not 14 is staffed with 4.

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 18:53:30 +0000

The career firefighters do not always show up with three guys. For example stations 3, 6, 14, and 19 are assigned 4 career personnel per shift. Ladder 12 most of the time has a 4th that is a part timer. The stations that are staffed with four is due to the fact that they are special ops and water rescue stations. On a rare basis will you get a volunteer truck with 6 certified firefighters. Certified meaning they have received a firefighter 2 cert allowing them to enter a IDLH environment.

It costs money to open a career fire station with people being against a small tax increase then this can not happen. A few extra dollars a month from each resident goes along ways. If you have a mortgage you won’t have to strike a check at the end of the year. You will only pay those few dollars a month. Few dollars meaning the price of a box of donuts.

By: Jason Ward

Jason Ward — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 17:03:39 +0000

When they fill out the volunteers 1099s they should put the pay in box 3 instead of box 7 this will fix all the irs problems

By: Lady

Lady — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 04:55:21 +0000

Here we go again. The North End. (As they call us) are going to be ripped off again. I wish we could be annexed into Alabama. We pay exborbant property taxes,we have an empty building that. The County is supposed to be using next to our Ruritn Club bldg. that the County (I hear) is designated to the Sheriff’s Dept. That could be used as a few days.week for Health. Sub office for tags etc so wwe wouldn’t have to drive halfway to Penacola to conduct business. There is Billy Ward County Owned building sitting idle for most of the week. THIS BUILDING should be open for all the services. Now you are cutting the volunteers so our homes will burn up before the SOUTH END get to us.

By: worried

worried — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 01:28:06 +0000

Each time (2 times) I have called for emergency help I got it. My mom was lifelighted out and died 10 days later. Every person was volenter and stopped to check on her before and after she died . They wanted to know if family needed anything. One guy wanted his church to help. We had afire they volentered to help rebuild!! (cow barn) Everyone who has volentered is a HERO!! And the county needs to take care of them.

By: Fire Officer

Fire Officer — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 21:33:54 +0000

Just this week my volunteer engine company responded to a medical call in a paid company’s district while the career truck was training out of their home district. The week before, my volunteer company responded to a medical call in a paid district. Works both ways some times. Volunteers might show up with a full truck, driver only, but the paid guys always show up with 3 (which is NOT a full truck). It is not uncommon for districts to cover other districts. Its a mutual aid of sorts. Over in Ferry Pass, they often run 2 trucks at the same time on multiple incidents. They also send Ferry Pass to Santa Rosa county for the same concept of mutual aid. So now we have to ask should Ferry Pass get 2 paid companies? Over 75% of the FIRE calls are actually MEDICAL calls that should be handled by EMS. Why is no one bickering about more ambulances from EMS?

This thread is getting good. I hope the shot-callers are reading.

By: Out_of_it

Out_of_it — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:19:28 +0000

I put 14 years in as a volunteer in Escambia, and I left primarily because of the politics. I received stipend for the last few years, and I paid my taxes on them based upon my 1099’s. So, this is more a matter of the IRS demanding that the county pay Social Security and FICA costs (the income tax was paid for by the individual).

As far as “everything is provided” and “there are no costs to the volunteer”, I am sorry but that is “bull”. Basic supplies are provided, and some uniforms. But if you want (and this is not all inclusive) – a radio case/strap, personal tools, extrication gloves, goggles, more than three uniforms, fuel for your vehicle (both to/from the station but also training at various locations), or to eat while you are there… you pay for it out of pocket. The stipend program was designed to help offset those costs, and to help intice people to join the departments.

I am wondering:

1 – how far back they will push this issue, they have been using a stipend system now for almost ten years.

2 – Will this affect prior members that received stipend payments?

3 – How will they manage this situation if they either decide to “hire” all personel (as stated before the FF2 requirements), or will they do away with the stipend program?

And I have no doubt that the issue was brought up before. Many issues that have been suddenly “discovered” have been brought up but tabled until the issue is forced (like this). And that is on BOTH sides (volulnteer and career). Unfortunately there is a lot of the “hide our head in the sand” mentality with these.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:02:30 +0000

Frank- the county does hire volunteers that apply for full time career positions. There are a lot of volunteers that have other better paying jobs so they choose not to partake of the opportunity. Escambia county has one of the lowest fire taxes In the state. Me personally I would have no problem paying more money per year if a unit(from my district) will show up to my house in a reasonable amount of time. The north end of the county operates very well with volunteers, no call volume is much less. What people do not know is that multiple times a day career personnel are having to leave their district to run a call in a volunteer district. So now that career unit is farther away from a potential fire than they would originally of been. People need to think about how they would feel if there house burned down right behind a fire station that never showed up. A very small increase in the fire tax would open more career stations to insure fire protection to the tax payers and quicker medical attention if EMS is delayed(ALS or BLS).