By Sharyn Cornelius 

     The Millville Fire Protection District meeting room at the firehouse was packed on Dec. 14, 2009 as almost 50 people attended the Board of Directors meeting to discuss the pros and cons of instituting an automatic mutual aid dispatch policy.  Some of the residents present came to support Betsy Bivins, who lost her Sprig Way home to fire on Oct. 24 and believes that the District should amend its agreement with the Shasta County Fire Department to include the automatic dispatch of mutual aid on all structure fires within the District.  

     Others came to show support for the volunteer firefighters, who do not want automatic aid because they fear that having the paid firefighters stationed at Palo Cedro dispatched on every structure fire incident in their district will cause them to become complacent about really hustling to respond those fires as they do now.  

     Under the District’s current agreement with the Shasta County Fire Department, Millville volunteer firefighters may request mutual aid from other fire companies at any time, but only Millville personnel are “toned out” on the initial dispatch.  With automatic aid, the Schedule A engine at Palo Cedro would be dispatched at the same time as Millville. 

     Bivin, who served as a volunteer firefighter in Whitmore for nine years, said that when she dialed 911 to report that her home was on fire, she expected to see lots of engines from the surrounding communities responding.  Instead a sole fire truck from Millville came rumbling down the gravel road with one firefighter behind the wheel.  She said it seemed like an eternity before other engines arrived, especially knowing that her four-month-old puppy Star was trapped inside the bedroom.  She said that the incident report she had gotten from CDF showed almost 30 minutes elapsed before enough personnel were on the scene for firefighters to enter the residence—too late for her puppy.  She also said that she was concerned that in the future it could be an elderly or disabled person who was trapped inside a burning residence. 

     Millville Fire Chief Devon Tassen explained that the primary reason for the District’s slow response to Bivin’s fire was that six of their 15 pagers did not go off that day, so some of the volunteers who were at home on that Saturday afternoon, did not know they were needed to fight a structure fire.  He added that normally Millville’s incident response times are among the best in the county, and on that day automatic aid would not have helped much because the Schedule A engine was at CDF Headquarters in Redding, not in Palo Cedro. 

     Much of the ensuing discussion centered on numerous residents saying they couldn’t understand why the knowledge that paid firefighters were being dispatched to help the Millville volunteers save a resident’s home would lead them to become complacent and didn’t believe that it should, but almost to a man, the volunteers said they believed it would have that effect even if they tried not to let it happen.  

     When the District’s Board of Directors agreed to take the matter up again at their meeting in January, several residents urged them to consider the fire protection needs of the residents as well as the feelings of the volunteer firefighters.  

     Supervisor Les Baugh who represents Millville on the Shasta County Board of Supervisors commended all those present for their civility despite the undercurrent of strong feelings on both sides of the issue.  “It’s a good thing when folks can disagree but not become angry,” he said. 

     After the meeting, Tassen contacted the East Valley Times to say that the District plans to send out a mail survey to all Millville residents before the next Board of Directors meeting to see how many are in favor of automatic aid and how many are not. The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Jan. 11, 2010.  Agendas will be posted at the fire hall, the Millville Post Office and the Millville Cemetery.