By Sharyn Cornelius

     After two public comment sessions during which numerous Millville residents urged the Board of Directors for the Millville Fire Protection District to change their mutual aid agreement with the Shasta County Fire Department to include automatic aid for structure fires, the Board on Jan. 11, 2010 voted three to two to do just that over the passionate objections of its volunteer firefighters.  What this amendment to the agreement will mean to Millville homeowners is that the nearest available engine from another fire company (in most cases the manned Schedule A engine from Station 32 in Palo Cedro) will be dispatched to all structure fire incidents within the Millville Fire Protection District boundaries at the same time as the Millville volunteers.

     To those who have been following this controversy since it began last summer, the vote seemed almost a foregone conclusion.  The three board members who voted in favor of automatic aid—Bob Buick, Craig Dowling and John Kessinger– had wanted to include it in the original mutual aid agreement the District signed in August, but backed down in the face of overwhelming opposition from the volunteer firefighters, including Fire Chief Devon Tassen, who said he would have to resign if the Board didn’t respect the wishes of the volunteers.           

     The residents who attended the District’s Board of Director’s meetings on Dec. 14, 2009 and Jan. 11 to lobby for automatic aid were led by Betsy Bivin who lost her Sprig Way home to fire on Oct. 24, 2009.  On that day the MFPD response was uncharacteristically lacking because six of its 15 pagers failed to go off, so firefighters who could have responded did not know about the fire.  Bivin says that even though automatic aid might not have saved her home, she wants it instituted to better protect all Millville residents in the future.

     Dan Tomascheski   also spoke out strongly in favor of automatic aid at the Jan. 11 meeting, saying that Calfire (which staffs the Schedule A engine in Palo Cedro) “is excellent at what they do and not to take advantage of their expertise was crazy.”  He also noted that statewide between 85 to 90 percent of fire departments have automatic aid agreements and urged Millville to take advantage of “all resources available to them.” 

     The Millville volunteer firefighters, however, firmly believe that having paid firefighters responding to structure fires within their District will destroy their morale and cause them to become slower in responding to incidents. In an effort to influence the Board’s vote, they wrote and mailed out to all 750 residents within the District a survey asking whether the homeowners preferred automatic aid or mutual aid, in which additional firefighting resources are not dispatched unless requested by District personnel.  They received 118 replies, 77 percent of which supported their side of the argument.

     Unfortunately, the volunteers did not seek the Board’s approval for the survey and included within it a plea for residents to support them in their fight to maintain the status quo.  “Please help us to carry on as a strong and independent department.  We the volunteers of the Millville Volunteer Fire Department are encouraging the Millville community to keep the mutual aid policy we have established in place.” As a result, the Board chose ignore the survey completely and did not even glance at the responses before casting their votes.  Tassen said later that he felt this was a “slap in the face to the volunteers and to the public who took the time to respond to the survey.” Directors Steve Goedert and Jim Hawley voted against amending the agreement to include automatic aid.

     In other business conducted at the Jan. 11 meeting, the MFPD Board voted to return a $1000 donation from the Millville Historical Society for the development of a small park behind the Fire Hall that never came to fruition and to spend an additional $1605.35 to purchase additional low angle rescue gear for the department. 

     The next meeting of the MFPD Board of Directors is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Feb. 11, 2010 at the Fire Hall and the public is welcome to attend.