NM Fire Chief Doug Buys Invited to Speak to Fire Chiefs Association
New Meadows Fire Chief Doug Buys was invited to speak at the Idaho Fire Chiefs Association in Coeur d’aLene on April 27. The President, Nampa Fire Chief, Kirk Carpenter, said he was hearing great things about the Meadows Valley Fire Department. Doug sat on a panel about recruitment and retention. New Meadows “apparently has a problem that no one else has which is ‘What to do with all these volunteers?’”, Doug said. The association ‘wanted to know what was working for us.’
The panel consisted of Fire Chiefs from Nampa, McCall, Emmett and Donnelly. They had all been impressed by Meadows Valley’s turnout, participation, and dedication at trainings. Doug thinks their success comes from getting new people involved right away as part of the team. Getting trained and becoming part of something big. Part of a family with nobody low on the totem pole, men and women alike. Chief Buys is very proud of his crew being recognized by bigger departments.
More people are joining the team right now. Six students just passed an EMT class in New Meadows, four of which are already firefighters, and are ready for their certification test. Josh Carr, Justin Aspiazu, John Welch, Katelyn Brumfield, Justin Peterson and Lucas Nicholson could become certified EMT’s as soon as June.
LeAndra Smith, Cody Day, Chris Peterson, Justin Aspiazu, Samantha Wittell and Josh Carr were able to attend Active Shooter Training this year on May 4 & 5, along with ten federal, state and local law enforcement officers. It was held again at Meadows Valley School. Instructors came all the way from Texas to teach the ALERRT funded training. ALERRT stands for Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training. The only expense New Meadows had was providing lunch. The fire department bought pizza and hamburgers from Brown’s Mountain Market.
Meadows Valley Fire Department wants to thank the Adams County Health Care Foundation for recently giving them a grant for a drone. The drone, that comes with a camera and a thermal imager, will be used for search and rescue and when conditions are hazardous. Meadows Valley Fire Department will be using it in conjunction with Adams County Sheriff’s Department to cut hours off of response time.
