Fallon/Churchill Volunteer Department – in a class all their own

by Rachel Dahl --  There were 31 members of the original Fallon Volunteer Fire Department when it was organized in 1915 – one for every day of the month to inspect their equipment. From that time, the tradition and pride in the modern-day, ISO Class 1 rated volunteer department has done nothing but grow. According to Jared Dooley, fire chief, this is the first volunteer fire department in the nation to receive an ISO Class 1 rating and have maintained the rating since 1995. The Insurance Service Office rating is a measure of public protection assigned to a community, and this department is one of the four departments out of the 103 in Nevada to have this designation. Mayor Ken Tedford said the department has worked diligently to have the ISO 1 rating, “which saves every resident and business owner money on their annual insurance rate.” He said the department has worked hard over the years to continue to maintain that insurance rating and recently went through a review and continues to be rated ISO 1. The Fallon/Churchill Volunteer Department responds to more than 400 fires and extraction calls a year, with an average response time of less than six minutes. The department protects a population in the City of Fallon of over 8,200 people, and in the greater Churchill County more than 25,000 people, spread out over 250 miles of the county’s 5,000 miles of desert. “I have the utmost respect for that department,” said Tedford. “Those volunteers give up their free time to not only fight and train while we’re all home and comfortable. I can’t say enough about how hard those fellows work to fight fires in our community and operate their dive teams and their extractions. What they see when they go on calls, and how they and their wives and families sacrifice, your community is very fortunate, and they add to our quality of life.” Jim Barbee, Churchill County manager echoed those sentiments, saying, “we are truly fortunate to be in a rural county with an ISO Class 1 rated all-volunteer fire department. These are some of our most dedicated public servants who do what they do for us out of sense of love for their community and its people.”     Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon. Never miss the local news -- read more on The Fallon Post home page.