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Rutland City Firefighters spread cheer
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City firefighters spread cheer
By STEPHANIE M. PETERS STAFF WRITER - Published: December 16, 2009 RUTLAND HERALD
No business is good business for the Rutland City Fire Department, but when December comes around, the department likes to make the community's holidays the main focus of its downtime.
This year, the Fire Department has sponsored two local families through the Rutland Area Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice and is seeing a steady stream of residents bring their Christmas trees by the Center Street station to have them sprayed with a fire-retardant solution.
They're also airing public service announcements with holiday safety tips on local radio stations and, for the first time, giving away smoke detector batteries to anyone who gets a tree sprayed.
"We enjoy doing it," said Jim Miles, president of the department's union, of the charity work. "It's just been a great success."
According to Miles, the firefighters give out about $6,000 in funding to local charities each year, all of which is raised at the annual booster event in October, a 5-0/50 raffle at the Elks Club. This year marked the third year the fire department put on the event. Prior to that, the firefighters used a portion of their annual union dues to sponsor families at Christmastime. Supporting the firefighters has become so popular that there's a waiting list to purchase one of the 200 tickets sold to the event, while the department consistently seeks new calls from organizations seeking donations.
On Monday, a few members of the department delivered $250 worth of wrapped gifts for the two families to RAVNAH.
While that portion of its holiday tradition is complete, Miles said the department anticipates being busy throughout the season spraying trees and handing out batteries.
The Rutland Fire Department is the only one in the state to offer the service, which involves lightly coating cut trees in a boric acid and bleach mixture that, while not entirely flame-proof, helps to slow down burning should a tree catch fire, according to Miles.
Miles said the department will easily spray more than 500 trees this year – despite never having even advertised the service.
Chief Robert Schlachter said he doesn't know why Rutland's department is the only one in the state to offer the service, but he does know it's just become tradition since at least the 1970s, when he first came to the area.
Where the department's charitable nature originated is another question to which Schlachter said he doesn't have an answer.
"I think it's just the opportunity to give back to the community," he said. "We provide a service and the community supports us.
"It's basically the nature of the fire service, helping people especially in their time of need, but if we can prevent something from happening we also like to do that, too," Schlachter said.
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