Cell phone replacement plan for members?

[asst2303]

Hi everyone, I am an Assistant fire chief with a volunteer department in PA. My question is does any department have a policy/program to replace lost or damaged cell phones as the result of being on a call? We had a member who recently damaged his cell phone while he was on a call. We have VFIS for our insurance, and I think our deductible is $500.00. Anybody have any ideas on this? Thank you.

[FWDbuff]

Hi everyone, I am an Assistant fire chief with a volunteer department in PA. My question is does any department have a policy/program to replace lost or damaged cell phones as the result of being on a call? We had a member who recently damaged his cell phone while he was on a call. We have VFIS for our insurance, and I think our deductible is $500.00. Anybody have any ideas on this? Thank you.

Montgomery County, Pa here. We have a pretty much no-questions asked replacement policy for member's personal property damaged in training or a call. We have replaced items of clothes (sunday church clothes for example) one or two pairs of glasses or sunglasses that I can think of and yes in the last few years a cell phone or two. I dont think we even bother with insurance, just tell the member to buy new and bring us the receipts. Dont think we have anything in writing.

[BSFD9302]

Cell Phones-absolutely not. We have a strict policy that only the Chief or Deputy Chief or be it a CO if either of those two are not on scene may have a cell phone. Others if their cell phone is there and gets damaged then....sorry about your luck. Never dealt with clothes before but glasses yes and if there is a POV used for some odd reason it is covered as well. And of course POVs are covered while in route to the station for a call.

[RyanK63]

Lackawanna County here, like FWDbuff, we have a no questions asked for personal equipment damaged or destroyed on calls or training. Depending on value of the item/items we will either make the insurance claim or just ask for receipts and reimburse the member.

[asst2303]

Hi everyone, thank you for the input. We are an all volunteer fire department, we ask our firefighters to give up their time, leave their families, put extra wear and tear on their vehicles, spend money on gas for their vehicle, and the list goes on! We have members including myself who check on their families during prolonged periods of time on calls which may be during severe weather conditions. I like the idea of handing in a receipt and the department pays for it, any item clothing, glasses, watch, cell phone, etc. However I think we would need a written policy on cell phone replacement. Thank you.

[FWDbuff]

Hi everyone, thank you for the input. We are an all volunteer fire department, we ask our firefighters to give up their time, leave their families, put extra wear and tear on their vehicles, spend money on gas for their vehicle, and the list goes on! We have members including myself who check on their families during prolonged periods of time on calls which may be during severe weather conditions. I like the idea of handing in a receipt and the department pays for it, any item clothing, glasses, watch, cell phone, etc. However I think we would need a written policy on cell phone replacement. Thank you.

We certainly encourage members not to take their phones into IDLH environments, but occasionally it happens, one time one of our guys had his on his hip, simply forgot to take it off and toss it into his gear rack before he put on his bunker pants, and unfortunately his phone got damaged in the course of the moment. IIRC he used his own phone's insurance/replacement policy and we covered the deductible. We dont have anything in writing simply for the fact that we dont feel we need it- money for that sort of thing isnt an issue and we trust our guys to do the right thing.