Greetings Theodore Dawes Communities,
Your Theodore Dawes Fire Rescue Department (TDFR) sincerely hopes that you and your families had a safe, happy, and blessed holiday season. As we begin another trip around the sun, I would like to reflect back on the year that was 2024 and pass along some highlights and statistics from your fire department.
Looking back to my January 2024 Tail Board Talk we had set some New Years Resolutions. Number 1 was to have the new Station 4 operational. While we did respond from there on a few calls, it was not long lived as the volunteer who was covering had to be relocated for construction. We are still in the midst of that construction and due to cost and our funding mechanisms, it has become a sort of pay as we go situation. Nevertheless, we think 2025 will be our year for Station 4. Number 2 on the list was paying off our ladder truck early. That was accomplished and we are currently debt free. Number 3 on the 2024 resolution list was to get the ball rolling on our new Central Fire Station, regretfully, that train is still in the station. Again, funding is our bump in the road for that facility because it will be no easy or cheap task to build our community’s first-class facility they and our members deserve. Last but not least, item number 4 on last year’s list was growing the District. This has proven to be a monumental task; we have been reaching out and I have attended meetings to pass along information throughout the year and already have been asked to speak to some groups going into this new year. Unfortunately, we are still no closer to getting to a vote. The crazy part is we are just trying to get it to a vote, if the area wanted to create or dissolve a fire district only 100 petition signatures are needed, but to expand an existing district the law requires two thirds of the property owners in the area to sign the petition just to get it to a vote. We will keep trying.
Briefly, I want to give you some numbers for your department and what we did over the course of 2024. Your TDFR was dispatched to 4,960 calls. Included in that number were over 3,378 medical calls, 301 fire calls of which 114 were structure fires, and the balance of calls were an array of general calls for fire services. We logged almost 4,000 hours of training within the Alabama Fire College system and multiple members receiving Fire College Certifications in over 17 different areas. All totaled, 123 Fire College Certifications were received and the department hosted 14 Fire College courses. I believe these are some impressive numbers when you consider that 90% of our membership are volunteers. We will try and get a more detailed year end review posted to our website by late January into February. I talk about funding a lot all year long, but I hope these numbers will show our communities that we are making wise and good use of your financial support. One last number for just a shocker, we consumed more than 7,000 gallons of diesel fuel providing our services, participating in community events, and training our members.
We are very fortunate to have a dedicated group of volunteers who are willing to commit their time and themselves to our department and the communities we serve. We are a 24/7/365 operations and look forward continuing to serve in 2025.