Fire Departments Recover From Record Breaking Fire Season
By: Marlisa Goldsmith
Updated: December 11, 2011
"This past season was by far the worst season we've had on record," says Sweetwater Fire Chief Grant Madden.
Chief Madden says the department had the largest and most fires they've ever had to fight.
"The nonstop, dry, windy, really low humidity weather that we had was just horrific, as far as the fires went," Madden explains.
For the Sweetwater Fire Department, it has been a terrible season as far as equipment goes.
"We had an incident where one of our trucks had a very bad problem at our big fire, at the White Hat fire. It went down hard and we could not fix it," says Madden.
Problems like this eventually forced the department to get a new brush truck.
Madden says, "It's been exceptionally a rough year for our budget. Our budget has taken a hug hit."
The department's fire budget on an annual basis is just over a million dollars, which is not much when you think about it.
"Almost a tenth of that more was required this year just in over time and fuel costs and equipment maintenance, not including replacing the truck," says Madden.
Madden says when it comes to making adjustments for the future, the department takes much into consideration.
"We always try to learn from the years before, especially last year."
However, when it comes to budgeting there's not much they can do.
"We have not amended it that much, not that we can. There's not a lot of room to just increase our budget," says Madden.
Chief Madden says the department had the largest and most fires they've ever had to fight.
"The nonstop, dry, windy, really low humidity weather that we had was just horrific, as far as the fires went," Madden explains.
For the Sweetwater Fire Department, it has been a terrible season as far as equipment goes.
"We had an incident where one of our trucks had a very bad problem at our big fire, at the White Hat fire. It went down hard and we could not fix it," says Madden.
Problems like this eventually forced the department to get a new brush truck.
Madden says, "It's been exceptionally a rough year for our budget. Our budget has taken a hug hit."
The department's fire budget on an annual basis is just over a million dollars, which is not much when you think about it.
"Almost a tenth of that more was required this year just in over time and fuel costs and equipment maintenance, not including replacing the truck," says Madden.
Madden says when it comes to making adjustments for the future, the department takes much into consideration.
"We always try to learn from the years before, especially last year."
However, when it comes to budgeting there's not much they can do.
"We have not amended it that much, not that we can. There's not a lot of room to just increase our budget," says Madden.
