Volunteer firefighters step up and take place of local personnel fighting wildfires
25 August 2020
Published by https://krcrtv.com/
USA – Volunteer at Bella Vista Fire Department (KRCR)
REDDING, Calif. — With wildfires continuing to burn in the Northstate and all over California, volunteer firefighters have stepped up and taken the place of local personnel at their stations.
The Bella Vista Fire Department is one of 17 local fire departments that have volunteers taken their place and stepping up for their community.
While every county fire department is welcoming volunteers, Bella Vista currently has 16 as of Tuesday.
These volunteers can do anything from being sent out to fire wildfires to answering fire calls locally.
But with receiving over 65 calls in the month of August and over 80 in the month of July, they’re hoping to add some new faces to their team.
Fire chief Ron Smith says he’s thankful for every volunteer they have as this isn’t the case for the departments in other areas.
“This is my team,” said Smith. “They never cease to amaze me. We’re one of the lucky ones. We probably have as many or more people in the county. There are some other stations that have 1,2,3 people as a volunteer fire department and that’s pretty taxing.”
And while the majority of the volunteers have fulltime jobs Kathleen Gallardo, who has been a volunteer for roughly 4 years, says she would have it any other way.
As long as she’s helping her community.
“My work helps me juggle with it,” said Gallardo. “Because they know this is what I do when I’m not there. They work with me in regard to that so if I need to go because I’m here today like I have the time to do that and they’re very helpful with that.”
The Bella Vista Fire Dep. is in need of more firefighter and experience is not needed.
They train every Monday night from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Bella Vista station.
You can call the Bella Vista Fire department at (530) 549-5112 or call Shasta County Fire at (530) 225-2418 to sign up to be a paid volunteer.
