LETTER FROM THE NEW FIRE CHIEF:
November 2007
GREAT NEWS FROM YOUR FIRE DEPARTMENT!!!

ATTN: Citizens in the Ellerslie Volunteer Fire Dept. Fire/Rescue area

FROM: Bruce McKenzie
Chief- Ellerslie Volunteer Fire Dept.

I want to send out a personal "thank you" to all the people who supported our BBQ and other various fund raisers this year and in the past. I was pleasantly surprised at the tremendous turnout we had at our annual community meeting in Oct. Many things were discussed at this meeting including what it would take to get our ISO rating down. (ISO is an organization that rates fire depts. for insurance purposes) ISO is short for Insurance Services Office and has given our fire dept an 8/9 which means if you are within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant you are an 8 if not, you are a 9. They use this number to determine your homeowner’s insurance premium. We have had this rating for a long time and in the very near future we are going to call for a new ISO inspection to get this rate down to hopefully a 5 or 6. How does this affect you and why should you care? What this would mean to you is a reduction of your homeowner’s premium up to 30% depending on your insurance company.

As you are probably aware, nobody draws ANY money from this department, we are all true volunteers. We have been working hard the last year and a half to do some of the many things that have to be done to get a better ISO rating. You may have noticed that all the fire hydrants now have blue reflectors on the road in front of it; this helps us find it quicker in the dark. Each of the 346 hydrants in our area have also been tagged and checked. These are just a few of the duties that had to be done before asking for a new ISO inspection, I assure you there are many more things just like this that we are in the process of doing.

At the community meeting a citizen asked, what could they do to help? My answer was, what we really need is money to buy a new fire engine and equipment for it. Well most of that has been taken care of!! I am proud to announce that we have been awarded an AFG (Assistance to Firefighters) grant in the amount of $194, 750 from Homeland Security. We have the money needed for our 5% matching funds but we are short a little money for some of the equipment needed for the new engine. I am asking the citizens of our area to help us out, and in turn you will be helping yourself out as well. For our new truck we need 4 SCBA's (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) and 4 extra air cylinders as required by ISO. Each SCBA cost $4,066 and each extra cylinder cost $1,040 each for a total cost of $20,424.

If you would like to donate please send a check to the address below or drop by the station and give it to a firefighter. Your donation is tax deductible, just put on your check that you would like a tax receipt and we will be happy to send one out to you.

If any questions or comments please contact me at: evfdchief@gmail.com

Thank You,
Chief Bruce McKenzie

EVFD Newsletter
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January 2007

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