Around Botetourt: Fire and EMS updates

For the last 10 months, Botetourt County’s Emergency Services has been without a fire chief. The last chief resigned in November 2017.

“We are working with the International Association of Fire Chiefs to fill the position,” County Administrator Gary Larrowe said recently. That organization is performing preliminary screening for the position, according to Larrowe. He did not know when candidates for fire chief might be interviewed.

A Fire and EMS Commission comprised of chief officers, Deputy Chief Jason Ferguson, and Larrowe are keeping the ambulances and fire trucks running so that citizens have these much-needed services. This management team concept has helped diminish concerns of volunteers who in the past sometimes felt usurped or undervalued by paid personnel.

For 18 years, Ferguson has watched the county’s emergency services switch from mostly volunteers to a mix of volunteers and 43 full-time paid positions. These trained individuals cover the 583 square miles of territory that makes up Botetourt.

Ferguson has been a steady hand at the helm, ensuring that the Department of Fire and EMS runs in spite of massive changes that include a revolving door of fire chiefs, emergencies like Interstate 81 wrecks, and the 2012 derecho that left parts of the county devastated.

The deputy chief on August 28 appeared before the county supervisors to ask for funding for a fire and rescue station study. The request for the study came from concerns expressed by the management team. The supervisors approved the $62,000 request.

“We are interested in better serving Daleville and other areas of the county,” Ferguson said. “We want to get a factual, data-driven analysis of where calls are.”

The county’s rescue squads last year transported 3,345 people to hospitals, a 20% increase over last year. In all, the county’s  fire and rescue services answered just over 6,000 calls, Ferguson said. Ten years ago, the county’s emergency services responders answered about 4,500 calls.

Many requests for aid come from the Troutville/Daleville community. This is no longer a rural area of apple orchards and farms. It has grown into an urban center of houses, apartment complexes, retirement and nursing homes, and several medical facilities, Ferguson noted.

Botetourt County has seven fire and rescue facilities. They are located in Blue Ridge, Read Mountain, Troutville, Buchanan, Fincastle, Eagle Rock, and Glen Wilton. Each has a variety of apparatus ranging from ambulances to fire trucks to swift water rescue vehicles.

The county’s budget for emergency services for the current fiscal year is $3.6 million for paid staff and $1.5 million for volunteers. The funds for the volunteers include items such as insurance, training, supplies for ambulances, and capital outlays for equipment . About half of this funding comes from tax payer money. The remainder comes from the county’s “cost recovery” initiative. This brings in about $1.2 million in revenue. Cost recovery means that the insurance of people who use ambulance services are billed for the ride to the hospital. Residents do not receive a bill for ambulance use.

—Story and photos  by Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee

Cutline top: Deputy Chief Jason D. Ferguson has been with Botetourt County Department of Fire & EMS for 18 years. He recently went before the Board of Supervisors to ask for a study to see where a new fire station might best be located. The supervisors approved the request.

Cutline bottom: A Botetourt County response vehicle waits at the ready for the next emergency.