DCFD ALIRT team to improve low retention numbers for volunteer firefighters

August 27, 2019 | 3:30 am

Updated August 26, 2019 | 10:12 pm

The Daviess County Advanced Large Incident Response Team (ALIRT) will help to reduce firefighter injuries, heat exhaustion and fatigue during large incidents, and will give firefighters the chance to work alongside colleagues from various departments across the county. | Photo by AP Imagery

The Daviess County Fire Department has implemented a new program that officials say will be better for both firefighters and the community. The Daviess County Advanced Large Incident Response Team (ALIRT) will help to reduce firefighter injuries, heat exhaustion and fatigue during large incidents, and will give firefighters the chance to work alongside colleagues from various departments across the county.

According to DCFD, ALIRT team members will be alerted via a separate tone on their pagers when large-scale emergency incidents require their services. When requested and available, team members will gather their home department-issued gear and respond in a non-emergency fashion, county-wide, to assist the initial responders in the mitigation and stabilization of the incident.

Once the incident commander deems the situation manageable, ALIRT members from other departments will be released from the scene to go back and protect their allocated communities.

DCFD is currently accepting applications for those wishing to join the ALIRT team, and officials also believe this taskforce will improve low firefighter retention.

“Daviess County is not immune to the national firefighter shortage,” said DCFD Assistant Chief Sean Blandford. “Recruitment and retention numbers are down for us. We’re still blessed to have a strong volume of men and women volunteers, but this will do some good things for us.”

Blandford said ALIRT will give volunteer firefighters more field experience in battling large structure fires because, regardless of which station those on ALIRT normally operate from, they will be able to cross lines of jurisdiction and assist with fires located anywhere across the county.

“Right now, if we’re fighting a fire in Thruston, it’d be rare to see anyone from Stanley show up,” he said. “This team will reduce fire exhaustion and fatigue and will give firefighters the opportunity to work different members of other teams.”

Blandford said it’s been difficult to get younger volunteer firefighters excited about battling fires because some of them don’t get enough chances to work them. In fact, some areas of the county only see three structure fires a year, he said.

“It’s hard to get some of these younger guys excited about learning all the tactics when they don’t get to use them,” he said. “This program will help retain firefighters by giving them more field access.”

Almost all full-time firefighters at DCFD started as volunteers, Blandford said, which means, in the long run, this program could go a long way in establishing bigger numbers of career firefighters.

“This was a group collaboration from all members of Daviess County Fire in the hope it will improve our numbers,” he said.

To be part of the ALIRT team, members must be active Daviess County volunteer firefighters, 150-hour certified, and able to pass the SCBA mask-fit test in regard to facial hair. Members must also be able to pass a physical agility test that will be administered by DCFD at a later date.

August 27, 2019 | 3:30 am

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