The Carrollton-North Carrollton Volunteer Fire Department has recruited 12 more firefighters, and others are welcome to sign up as the department refills its force.
Carroll County Fire Coordinator Art Hicks and several county fire chiefs held an orientation meeting last Thursday for the new members.
“It went well,” he said. “This is a real big asset to the community.
“We had no idea we were going to have folks turn out like this — but we did.”
Early in December, about 15 volunteers resigned because of management changes in the Carroll County E911 dispatch office. The Board of Supervisors voted to appoint Sheriff Clint Walker as the operations director for the county’s Emergency Operation Center.
Other fire departments in the county have been responding to fire calls since the resignations.
The orientation session introduced the volunteers to the equipment and station, but the men won’t respond to fires until next week, Hicks said. This Thursday, the recruits will be issued their jackets, pants, boots and helmets.
As of Monday, the department had 15 volunteers, and five of those are certified. Hicks said he wants to wait to begin certification classes until the end of February or beginning of March in case more people want to volunteer.
Volunteers must be 18 or older, and the Carrollton-North Carrollton Fire Department does background checks.
“We want them to be just as responsible and an upstanding citizen even when they are off duty,” Hicks said.
Although they are able to respond to fires without being certified, the volunteers will be under the guidance of those who are. At least four volunteers are needed to respond to a fire, but Hicks said he is not putting a limit on how many can sign up.
“It is not a question of how many,” he said. “The more we have, the more manpower we have.
“If we could get 20, I would be more comfortable.”
Hicks said he and Carrollton and North Carrollton officials received a notice Jan. 4 from the Mississippi State Ratings Bureau that they had 30 days to re-establish the fire department.
Hicks said they already have the necessary positions filled, and those volunteers will be able to respond to fires by next week.
Ty Windham, superintendent of the public protection department for the bureau, said he had never seen a situation like that with the Carrollton-North Carrollton department.
The bureau assigns ratings of Class 1 to 10 to fire departments across the state. Class 1 is the best.
“We have got to have at least four people show up for a structure fire for them to even be eligible to grade,” he said. “The four can be paid, volunteers or a mix of both.”
The Carrollton-North Carrollton Department is currently a Class 6, but if it had not filled the those volunteer positions, it would have slipped to a Class 10.
“The higher the number, the more insurance premiums will be,” Windham said.
At Class 10, homeowners’ insurance would have increased 40 to 50 percent, he said.
The search for an interim chief is ongoing, although the department can respond to fires.
Hicks said he expects the search to be drawn out.
“We have got some candidates, but I want to make sure that we have got someone who we can depend on and is responsible,” he said.
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
