CHIEF TO RETIRE, CITES NEW RULES

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

Chief Thomas Oesterheld preached fire and brimstone to Spotsylvania volunteer firefighters at this year's annual banquet.

His message: The county government doesn't care about you.

It's a message Oesterheld said came loud and clear over the past 12 months, a period he refers to as "the year of hell."

His 55 years of service mean nothing to county officials, Oesterheld said as he announced he would retire this year.

SETTING NEW STANDARDS

His indignation stems from the new minimum training standards, approved in October by the county's Fire and Emergency Medical Services Commission. The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors asked for these new standards as a reaction to a Feb. 5, 2010, fatal fire, when a resident died while on the phone with an emergency dispatcher. The scene of the incident was chaotic, according to internal and external reviews of the incident.

A comprehensive study released in November by the Virginia Fire Services Board commended Spotsylvania for its recent efforts on training, and warned that the lack of minimum training standards "presents liability issues for the county."

Under the new rules, Oesterheld will need nearly 1,000 hours of training to continue as chief.

The county set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2013, for standards to be realized. Oesterheld said it would be impossible to acquire that training in two years. Over the years, he has attended many training courses, he said, but he doesn't have records for most of them.

Other volunteer leaders have balked at the new requirements.

"Nobody is against training," said Mark Kuechler, president of Spotsylvania Volunteer Fire Department. "I and my colleagues have a strong objection to the fact that there has been no accommodations for length of service and experience."

Kuechler voted to approve the new rules and said that anti-volunteer sentiment was so strong at the time that no one on the commission wanted to object to standards. He also thought the rules would be refined to deal with cases such as Oesterheld's.

The volunteer chief thought five decades of fighting fires should count, and asked to be exempt from the new requirements.

County Administrator Doug Barnes refused, saying the standards have just been set and that waiving the requirements at the outset would send the message that Spotsylvania isn't committed to improving its fire and rescue system.

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THE ISSUE Spotsylvania fire and rescue workers and officers must meet new requirements by Jan. 1, 2013. Career and volunteer representatives approved those minimum training standards. But now, a volunteer chief says the timeline is impossible and accuses the county of trying to get rid of volunteers. WHAT IT MEANS

This conflict illustrates the friction in Spotsylvania's combination system. Similar issues appear across the country as localities integrate career and volunteer firefighters to provide more service at a reduced cost. Discord could lead to chaos, which can be devastating in an emergency.

WHAT'S AHEAD

The county is offering training courses to meet the new requirements.

In the meantime, the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Commission continues to work on standard operating procedures for the department. The last set was criticized for providing no accountability.

Career and volunteer firefighters can work together to serve Spotsylvania, County Administrator Doug Barnes said. And the recent snowstorms offered a chance to prove it. When snow was forecast in mid-January, Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Eudailey called the volunteer chiefs and offered to keep the career firefighters two hours late in case volunteers had trouble making it to the fire stations. The next morning, volunteers stayed late to help career firefighters.

"We gave the citizens of the county a cooperative effort in taking care of the calls," Barnes said.

Spotsylvania's fire departments started combining career and volunteer firefighters in the 1980s. So why are problems popping up now? It may be that the system was not created as a true combination system.

The system operates more like a dual system, where volunteer and career emergency workers both serve the county but don't work as a team. Fred Windisch, who co-wrote a training manual on leading combination systems, said the dual system can also be called a "duel system," because it usually leads to conflict.

Read more stories about Spotsylvania
Date published: 2/6/2011

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