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County Fire Chief Addresses Elimination Of Separate Volunteer Departments
January 23, 2008
Escambia County Fire Chief Ken Perkins addressed the consolidation of Escambia County’s volunteer fire departments at an informational meeting held with volunteers Tuesday night at the county’s public safety building in Pensacola.
Perkins said he believes the elimination of separate departments and the formation of a unified county fire department would be a step in the right direction.
But several volunteer fire fighters at at the meeting disagreed, saying there is nothing wrong with the current system that has 15 different departments.
“I make a damn good living working for AT&T. I’ve got two kids and a wife and I’m fortunate to have a rental home,” one volunteer said. “But I’m hurting in this economy right now. And what I don’t want to see is this fire station or unified fire department come in, when fire departments are doing a damn good job.”
The Escambia County Commission is expected to vote to consolidate the county’s fire departments at their Thursday night meeting.
“As far as I am concerned on October 1, we’ve got a whole new fire department in Escambia County,” said Commissioner Mike Whitehead at the commission’s Committee of the Whole meeting last week.
“There will be so many stations, but they won’t be independent districts anymore. It will be an Escambia County fire system,” Commissioner Gene Valentino said last week. “We will still very much value and absolutely need the support of the volunteers, but it will be one system that will be a unified Escambia County fire system.”
The county’s agreement with the volunteer fire departments in the county ends on September 30, according to County Attorney Janet Lander.
“I’m not going to vote to renew a contract,” Commissioner Mike Whitehead said at last week’s meeting. “We’ve talked about it for two years. It’s time to move; it’s time to make it happen.
There are four volunteer departments in the North Escambia area…Century, McDavid, Molino and Walnut Hill. All four would be eliminated as independent departments and replaced by the unified county fire department under the county’s plan.
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