The Mountain Home Fire and Rescue is a nonprofit organization that operates off a fire protection tax base in Henderson County, North Carolina. We are a combination volunteer-paid fire department operating out of 3 stations. We have 16 volunteers and 14 paid firefighters that provide 24-hour coverage for our district.
This department has massive potential to be a jam up place. There is a room to grow with a diverse district. The problem starts with administration leaving some issues alone but nitpicking others. There is a lack of support whenever it comes to corrective actions made by officers. But that might be slightly nepotistic. There has been occasions where the administration claimed their support of new ideas but then once they are discussed on shift they will shut it down effectively cutting the legs out from under the officers. If a counsel negatively affects the son of the deputy chief the decisions and actions made get reversed. The work environment is great if you don’t have any sort of work ethic or drive to better yourself. If you try to hold yourself and others to a higher standard you are not supported. Problem children are coddled and everyone else is either left alone or the lack of action to the problems are reflected on them. There are people in officer positions that are afraid to do their job and have no owner ship in their decisions. As an officer you are expected to be Barney the dinosaur when dealing with shift issues versus a leader. The culture is based on how much bitch work you do relates to your treatment and how much support you get from admin. The slugs get coddled and the rest of the members are expected to keep their personal standards lower to accommodate them. The more positive aspect of the department is that care is taken to ensure all the equipment and apparatus are in proper working order. Trucks are replaced at reasonable time and stay in good condition. With the 48/96 schedule it is nice to work and admin is accommodating to letting members sleep if they had busy nights. The only staffing issues could be fixed with an extra firefighter and more trained drivers. But that would require people to either do their basic job or go above that. But in certain cases the bare minimum is the only standard, and it is acceptable to go lower than that if you are one of the golden children.
Mountain home fire and rescue has the potential of being an effective and well run department. Unfortunately it comes short with many fixable issues.
Leadership is lacking when it comes to true fire ground operations. Most often everyone likes to arrive on scene and attempt to be in charge all while 1 or 2 of the 7 on duty personnel are ready to work and actually wearing gear. Officers are more often concerned with completing Chiefs honey-do list rather than training and molding its up and coming firefighters, engineers and Lieutenants into competent personnel. They then become upset and yell when new firefighters fresh out of academy arrive on scene and are not confident or proficient. Now the officer will have to do something beyond talking to dispatch which they don’t like because everyone’s going to see they don’t know what to do either.
Morale is low unless you have bugles on Chiefs favorite shift. All subordinates that want to train, exercise, and learn new skills are on there own and usually belittled for doing things like running, not weighing 300 lbs, and actually wanting to improve skill sets instead of telling the uppers how great they are and watch tv for 9 hours a day.
Mountain home has a surprisingly large budget and the ability to purchase nice things. Unfortunately they choose not to and buy really poorly made rosenbauer engines that have so many bells and whistles that are broken half the time you’re in a reserve. Having quality nozzles and hose that is consistent across each apparatus is too expensive, but buying 7 different uniform jackets to issue to all members must be done immediately. Quality hand tools like pro bars for first out trucks is not going to fit in this years budget, but the fleet of SUVs that sit around a majority of the time must be updated.
The 48/96 schedule is actually a fairly nice consistent schedule. The time off provided through sick and vacation is nice. Staffing consists of 5 personnel at 1, and 2 personnel at 2. The falter occurs in how each crew is divided. 3 men on the engine, 2 on the “hook” crew, and 2 in a mini pumper. Higher ups become upset when fire attack isn’t happening fast enough because only 2 of the 7 people are stepping off in gear, one is attempting to operate multiple apparatus, and 3 are figuring out who is in charge and will talk the fire out on his radio. The last one is usually already out of breath somewhere.
Rating Breakdown
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2 Reviews on “Mountain Home Fire and Rescue”
This department has massive potential to be a jam up place. There is a room to grow with a diverse district. The problem starts with administration leaving some issues alone but nitpicking others. There is a lack of support whenever it comes to corrective actions made by officers. But that might be slightly nepotistic. There has been occasions where the administration claimed their support of new ideas but then once they are discussed on shift they will shut it down effectively cutting the legs out from under the officers. If a counsel negatively affects the son of the deputy chief the decisions and actions made get reversed. The work environment is great if you don’t have any sort of work ethic or drive to better yourself. If you try to hold yourself and others to a higher standard you are not supported. Problem children are coddled and everyone else is either left alone or the lack of action to the problems are reflected on them. There are people in officer positions that are afraid to do their job and have no owner ship in their decisions. As an officer you are expected to be Barney the dinosaur when dealing with shift issues versus a leader. The culture is based on how much bitch work you do relates to your treatment and how much support you get from admin. The slugs get coddled and the rest of the members are expected to keep their personal standards lower to accommodate them. The more positive aspect of the department is that care is taken to ensure all the equipment and apparatus are in proper working order. Trucks are replaced at reasonable time and stay in good condition. With the 48/96 schedule it is nice to work and admin is accommodating to letting members sleep if they had busy nights. The only staffing issues could be fixed with an extra firefighter and more trained drivers. But that would require people to either do their basic job or go above that. But in certain cases the bare minimum is the only standard, and it is acceptable to go lower than that if you are one of the golden children.
Mountain home fire and rescue has the potential of being an effective and well run department. Unfortunately it comes short with many fixable issues.
Leadership is lacking when it comes to true fire ground operations. Most often everyone likes to arrive on scene and attempt to be in charge all while 1 or 2 of the 7 on duty personnel are ready to work and actually wearing gear. Officers are more often concerned with completing Chiefs honey-do list rather than training and molding its up and coming firefighters, engineers and Lieutenants into competent personnel. They then become upset and yell when new firefighters fresh out of academy arrive on scene and are not confident or proficient. Now the officer will have to do something beyond talking to dispatch which they don’t like because everyone’s going to see they don’t know what to do either.
Morale is low unless you have bugles on Chiefs favorite shift. All subordinates that want to train, exercise, and learn new skills are on there own and usually belittled for doing things like running, not weighing 300 lbs, and actually wanting to improve skill sets instead of telling the uppers how great they are and watch tv for 9 hours a day.
Mountain home has a surprisingly large budget and the ability to purchase nice things. Unfortunately they choose not to and buy really poorly made rosenbauer engines that have so many bells and whistles that are broken half the time you’re in a reserve. Having quality nozzles and hose that is consistent across each apparatus is too expensive, but buying 7 different uniform jackets to issue to all members must be done immediately. Quality hand tools like pro bars for first out trucks is not going to fit in this years budget, but the fleet of SUVs that sit around a majority of the time must be updated.
The 48/96 schedule is actually a fairly nice consistent schedule. The time off provided through sick and vacation is nice. Staffing consists of 5 personnel at 1, and 2 personnel at 2. The falter occurs in how each crew is divided. 3 men on the engine, 2 on the “hook” crew, and 2 in a mini pumper. Higher ups become upset when fire attack isn’t happening fast enough because only 2 of the 7 people are stepping off in gear, one is attempting to operate multiple apparatus, and 3 are figuring out who is in charge and will talk the fire out on his radio. The last one is usually already out of breath somewhere.