Volunteer Fire Coordinator Darryl Smith told the board of supervisors Monday he is looking into ways to use a text-messaging group to contact firefighters when they are needed.
“We are using the pagers, but we are also looking at using the telephone because everybody has a cell phone,” he said.
“I think this will help us, for everybody to get out to the scene, because we need more bodies out there when we get called out.”
County Administrator Joe Murray said the county’s website already has the capability of sending text messages out to select groups, and that could be utilized.
Supervisor Mike Lazarus said county residents might likewise be interested in receiving such text messages.
“Even if someone can’t volunteer every time, I would want to know if my neighbor’s house was on fire,” he said. “I would think most people would want to be on that system.”
Smith said many residents seem to be under the impression that when they sign up to be volunteer firefighters, they are obligated to respond to every fire.
Lazarus said residents should realize they aren’t obligated to be present at every blaze, but should be willing to help out in their neighborhoods.
“You show up at the (fires) you can,” he said. “But if you have a big enough pool (of volunteers from which you can draw), there’s not that much strain on the firefighters.”
The board also gave Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford Sr. permission to sell two travel trailers that are housed at the Foster Mound Volunteer Fire Department.
The trailers were given to the county 16 years ago to be used as a command unit, Bradford said, but they were not right for the job, which he said was, “like trying to make a mule into a racehorse.”
“It just isn’t going to happen,” he said. Supervisor Angela Hutchins said the trailers had never been used since they were given to the county.
©2014 The Natchez Democrat (Natchez, Miss.)
