Sipsey Valley Volunteer Fire Department
How can I help?
The Sipsey Valley Volunteer Fire Department, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, accepts donations!
Where does the money go?
The Sipsey Valley Volunteer Fire Department is a 100% volunteer organization. This means that 100% of your donations go directly toward putting firefighters on the front lines of an emergency. No one is paid a salary at the department, and all labor is volunteer labor. All of the monies collected by the department go directly toward things like:
Vehicle Maintenance
Maintaining a fleet of trucks can be a very costly endeavor. We operate a fleet of mostly older fire apparatus that requires costly maintenance. While we do have volunteers that work on vehicles, the work required often exceeds the skill sets of our volunteers and tools available to work.
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Parts for fire vehicles are also costly. Many parts, due to the age or uniqueness of the equipment, are not readily available and are therefore expensive or must be fabricated at great cost.
Fire/Medical Equipment
Fires cannot be fought effectively from supplies that are available commercially. Specialized equipment for firefighting and emergency medical supplies must be purchased for use. Because of the requirements that this equipment must meet to be exposed to heat, smoke, etc., the equipment is quite costly to purchase.
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Equipment such as this are used in training and actual fires. For redundancy and firefighter safety, multiples of a certain item are also used. Consumable items, often used in emergency medical treatment, are not able to be reused.
Personal Protective Gear
Our firefighters require specialized protective gear to shield them from heat and smoke at fire scenes, pathogens at emergency medical scenes, glass and other debris at traffic accident scenes, as well as moving vehicles during traffic control.
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Most of these items are specialized equipment and must be purchased at specialized dealers.
Fire Apparatus Purchase/Upgrade
All fire apparatus have a serviceable life, and the majority of our apparatus is at the end of its operational lifespan.
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Additionally, to meet the modern demands of an ever-changing world, our department must upgrade and purchase new equipment that is capable of meeting modern mission needs.