One small town in southern Wisconsin understands the importance of the volunteer firefighters who serve the community and has a tradition of accommodating them when the call comes in.
WISC has a report on the town of Evansville in Rock County where it's a local tradition for businesses to give volunteer firefighters in their employ the freedom to leave work during the day when they are paged for an emergency call.
According to WISC, the Evansville Community Fire District receives about 150 calls a year, and all 35 volunteers in the district receive a page when they come in.
“Being able to have a job, a place of employment, that allows you to leave when the pagers go off is super important,” said Bill Castonguay, who has been an Evansville firefighter for 18 years and an EMT for nine.
There are many volunteers who do work outside Evansville, which makes it harder for them to respond during the work day, so Castonguay says that makes it even more important for local businesses to allow their employees to leave.
“We’re very appreciative that a lot of our businesses in our area allow us to do that,” he said.
City administrator Ian Rigg told WISC that at least three firefighters work for the city’s municipal services.
“We allow them to leave as long as what they’re leaving isn’t a priority on our end,” Rigg said. “If they’re able to easily take off, we allow them to take off so that way they can respond to the fire.”
Rigg said the system has been in place for decades in Evansville, which has a population of about 5,000.
“It’s just been sort of an unspoken rule that these things matter for the community, and as part of that community, we do our best to accommodate emergency response,” he said.
