The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

August 13, 2008

Fuel realities burden fire departments

By Mark Fischenich

Fuel budgets are exhausted with more than a quarter of the year left to go, leaving area volunteer fire departments to scramble for ways to keep the fuel tanks full on their fire trucks.

In St. Peter, the fire department used to fire up its equipment for four or five minutes every week to make sure everything was running well and ready to go.

“Because of the cost of fuel, we’ve reduced that to a one-to-two minute run,” said Fire Chief Windy Block.

New Ulm Fire Chief Paul Macho said his department’s fuel budget was gone in the first half of the year, and all parts of the remaining budget are being looked at for dollars to shift to fuel.

“Taking a little bit from here, a little bit from there and hope that nothing is compromised,” Macho said.

It’s also a little desperate in Waseca.

“We have to cut either training or equipment,” said Waseca Fire Chief Gary Conrath.

Those chiefs and others were gathered in St. Peter Wednesday to support federal legislation co-sponsored by Congressman Tim Walz that would allow volunteer fire departments to seek reimbursement for 75 percent of the increase in fuel expenditures compared to 2007.

Walz said the legislation is getting strong support from lawmakers representing rural districts, and there’s a companion bill in the Senate, making him hopeful it will pass before the end of the year.

The legislation is not a long-term solution, Walz said, but it will at least help departments avoid having to choose between fuel and training or equipment firefighters need to do their jobs.

“That is simply the wrong choice. We can’t make that choice,” he said. “The safety of the firefighter is at risk.”

Walz said it’s also wrong to force volunteer firefighters, who are already making personal sacrifices to serve their communities, to spend more of their spare time fundraising to generate revenue to pay for record-high diesel fuel costs.

Firefighters said fuel consumption by fire equipment would surprise most people. A loaded tank truck gets as little as 4 miles per gallon, but the real cost comes when equipment is already at the scene of a fire. A pumper can burn through nine gallons of fuel in an hour of spraying water at a blaze.

Tom Phillips, the retired chief of the Henderson Fire Department, said multiple departments responding to a large fire in Green Isle this summer used 6,000 gallons of fuel. And firefighters don’t have the same options that other energy consumers have in the face of rising fuel budgets — walk more, drive less, switch to a scooter.

“When people dial 911, they want us there,” Block said. “And we can’t just be there with one truck.”

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