Mitch McClure, board chairman for the Dallas Bay Fire Department, gave the Hamilton County commission and update on how their department had fared during 2019. As he revealed, Dallas Bay is not just getting by - it is thriving.
"We wanted to give you an update. We’re the only ISO class two fire department in the state of Tennessee,” said Mr. McClure. “We will have another ISO rating next year, and (we hope it) will be good if we go to an ISO1, something that would be unheard of for a volunteer fire department.”
The Dallas Bay department is one of the most productive in the county, as evidenced by the amount of calls they run, he said.
As Mr. McClure told the commission, the department has not yet received that many calls, but rather that is a projection. He also took time to thank County Mayor Jim Coppinger, who at one time worked with the department.
“We will run over 2,000 calls this year; according to the current statistics we are running more calls than any other fire department in Hamilton County,” said Mr. McClure. “We want to serve the community, and I want to thank you in particular for Mayor Coppinger. He was the genesis for finding more funding for volunteer fire departments.”
The report to the commission had their call data, a five-year plan, and a list of who the department reports to. He told the commission the volunteer fire departments around Chattanooga save the county around $50 million.
While Commissioner Tim Boyd was thankful for the work the department does for their community, he did wonder how the Dallas Bay department got more calls than other volunteer departments. Mr. McClure had a simple answer for that.
"We run all calls. If it’s CPR, if it’s a stroke, a fire, someone falling, or an overdose. It’s incredible what we do,” he said. “We’ve also got 600 new houses going up within our district. You have more people and vehicles and activities.”
While Mr. McClure’s report was mostly positive in nature, he did highlight the more dangerous aspects of being a first responder for the Dallas Bay fire department.
“If it’s an overdose, our first responders lives are in danger. And our guys deal with it every day,” said Mr. McClure. “And we, a few years ago, purchased body armor because you don’t know who is going to try to jump out of the closet to try to kill you when you respond to an overdose. It’s sad.”
“These are people who are really devoted to what they are doing. They spend a lot of their own time training and away from their families,” said County Mayor Coppinger. “They give a lot back to their community, and it saves taxpayers literally millions of dollars. And I can’t brag enough about what they mean to this county.”