MikeMooreMedia

Seth Durham, Reidsville Fire Marshall 08.15.24

Services, EMS and Rescue, inspections, investigations; programs, free smoke detectors, child safety seat installation, school and community classes, blood pressure checks, training, September 11th memorial program. www.RiseUpReidsville.com

Duration:: 18m
Broadcast on:: 15 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Mike Moore media on our media line Seth Durham assistant chief and fire chief and fire Marshall for this city of ritual he said how you doing hey Mike doing good how are you I'm doing great well chief we've never done a program before so before we get into some important things here I'd kind of like to know a little bit more about you can you give us a little background I know your native of a Rockingham County for sure sure yep so as you mentioned born and raised here in Rockingham County I've been affiliated with the reasonable to fire department either in a part-time capacity or a full-time capacity going on 18 years now currently as you as you referenced I'm the assistant chief and fire Marshall here previously before I took over this role I've been in this position right at just over a year but prior to that I was a line captain on one of the trucks for six years and before that driver and whatnot so I kind of work my way through the ranks and and here we are today yeah yeah and that's kind of the way it works isn't it with as I've talked to people in fire departments all around the county now do you have some always like to check in on things like this some family members that have been associated with fire service through the years going back yes sir so actually my grandfather he was one of the founding members of organ Hill volunteer fire department and my dad kind of got involved in the fire service you know seeing his dad do it and whatnot he kind of got involved in the volunteer fire service and then in the mid 90s he had the opportunity to come to work for reachable and he's currently a battalion chief here at reachable fire and he's kind of getting ready the transition may be into that retirement mode he's kind of done his time and whatnot but yeah I do kind of have some family history when it goes back to the fire service yeah I knew it that seems to be always the case it's just kind of a generational thing down through the year so your grandfather Oregon Hill that connects you wow that's great so so does your dad have a retirement date already on the calendar no sir nothing official you know he's kind of heading around at a few different options but nothing official so I guess we'll see yeah okay all right well all the best to him and appreciate you're sharing with us that kind of background there too about your family let's talk about the reach for fire department and for those that don't really know what you do what are some of the services that you provide for the city of reachable Seth sure thing so you know the fire department offers a really a variety of services and you know that's kind of an interesting thing to think about a lot of times people will hear fire department and they really think we just fight fires and you know rightfully so that people have that mentality because then if you go back and you look at the history of the fire service early on that's really what the fire service focused on but you know as times progressed and needs arose and what not the fire service kind of transition and and we offer a variety of services so here at reachable obviously we do offer fire protection you know in suppression if you have a fire we're coming out to put it out and what not we offer emergency medical services so all our guys on our trucks are required to be EMTs and we can provide basic you know medical services until EMS gets there we also offer some rescue services some of us are confined space certified and some other specialty type rescues kind of if you go back to the whole fire the fire concept when you have a fire you kind of want to know what caused it and so with that it's part of my job being the fire marshall you know I oversee the investigations and conduct those to determine the cause and origin and whatnot also in my role I oversee our fire inspections and our public education so just to kind of highlight a little bit on those the inspections basically the if you're run a business here in the city you were subject to a fire inspection and that that follows under the standards and that the code dictates you know basically there's an inspection schedule based on what type of business you are and you do for an inspection we come out and we're just looking at life safety stuff fire extinguishers exit signs things of that nature and ensure that all that stuff is in place and being up kept like it's supposed to be and to provide fire protection in the event something did happen you know I know a lot of times inspectors kind of get a bad rip as being the bad guy and the reality of that is that that's not the case you know we're just there to ensure that life safety components are in place being being maintained and are ready to function in the event that they're needed sure so and well that that that's very very important I mean I mean people just need to stop and think about and had a moment and when you're looking at any business but I think particularly of of anything anyone dealing with the food and restaurants and things like that and all of the things that need to be in place for the safety of everyone involved I want to talk about training you mentioned that confined spaces saying but but there's so much training that goes into workshops and and just to continuing things that all of you have to do all the time isn't there yes sir to get your certification to be a firefighter you know we require you to have your level two fire certification and you're talking it really depends on how you're how you're able to obtain it if you can go through like an Academy class you're looking at about a four-month time frame some colleges offer like a two night a week and every other Saturday program and you're looking at and if you go that route a year to obtain your firefighter certification and in your EMT you're looking at four to six months they're again depending on which avenue you choose to to go to obtain that so that's that's really just your basic certifications when you get into your your rescue certifications and your driver operator certifications and stuff you're you're talking a lot of training hours yeah and then on top of that I think where a lot of people don't realize once you have the certification you're required to do continuing it to keep it so you really you get in this line of work and you you always are going to school with things like yeah yeah I would imagine yeah it's really kind of a lifetime commitment there almost isn't it yes sir it can feel that way some days yeah yeah okay how many people there with the regional fire department how many on on staff whether it's now do you have we're looking at paid positions volunteers or both so we do have a combination and when when I say volunteer it's really a part-time role it's kind of on call fireman so what they would what their responsibility would be is if we have a fire they get notified they can come back and assist us on scene and also we utilize those part-time positions to field shift like if somebody's out sick and we need coverage then we can reach out to our part-timers and see if they're available to to fill the gap oh yeah as far as our full-time positions we currently have 28 full-time positions and that would include the administration staff one trainee position and then the rest of that would be shift guys so yeah okay that sounds like a pretty good team that's a team another team reads will idea there for sure right right yes okay all right well thank you for that information what programs does the regional fire department offer sure and I kind of touched on this briefly when I got into the inspections a little bit ago but to kind of further that that topic for more we have a smoke detector program so if you're a citizen here inside the city limits and you don't have a smoke detector you can reach out to us and we'll come out and install one maybe you do have a smoke detector and the battery is gone dead or something like that we'll come out and put a battery in all you know all that's free of charge for our citizens we have some people here who are what we call course the technicians but I guess the proper name would be child safety seat text and what they can do is assist you in installing a course seat you know if you're first-time parent or whatnot and and maybe need to be shown the proper way to put a seat in you can come by and they can assist you with that we also as I mentioned earlier as part of my job is to oversee our public fire education and we kind of cover several different areas in terms of that one of the key parts of that is we go into our public schools here inside the city usually we start September and we go through May and we go once a month and we we target typically third grade classes and we go over like fire related safety we go over some basic emergency related safety some water safety and just things that kids may be exposed to that we can provide some insight and on how to safely handle and an example would be like you know summertime swimming pool kind of go over from basic water safety tip so that they know what to do and not to do when they're in those environments before you let's stop right there because there there's so many good positive stories that we all hear on the news and things like that and I'm sure you have some personally that you know you've gone into schools you've gone over some of the things you're talking about there and you wonder well they are they listening these third graders paying attention or even older students and then you know sometime later something happens and and they remember and a life is saved and you know things like that so that that's always exciting when that happens isn't it yes sir yes sir here you are correct and I know there's been cases where I've been in the school and and what we typically our program would consist of is kind of like okay we're here to do talk about this today but before we do let's recap what you learned last month and it's very interesting and kind of your point very rewarding yeah to hear the kids be able to recall we all talked about this and y'all talked about that so it lets you know that they are getting it you know it let you know that it's thinking in and they're understanding it and that it could possibly save their life or somebody that they knows life one day in the event of an emergency sure yeah okay didn't mean interrupt there but but I wanted us to talk about that a little so thank you for sharing that okay so back back to some more programs yeah yeah so that's kind of our bread and butter if you will on our poor bed but we also we offer an example we have a crew going out to the regional YMCA today for their summer camp to do like a fire truck demo they're gonna go out and show the kids the trucks and and kind of answer any questions and that kind of stuff so we if you have a church group or maybe a daycare or you know some type of group and you want a fire truck to come out you know we send trucks out for that kind of stuff we also do station tours so you can bring that group to the station hey let's go see where the firemen live you know those are some things that we offer and kind of to go back to the school there in May what we normally do is take our smoke trailer out and we will run K through 5th grade through our smoke trailer I know what we're doing is teaching the kids how to safely get out of their home in the event that the smoke detector along some of the fire you know how to safely get out where to go and what to do so we we get everybody through that in the public school system here at least once a year that's great yeah and got moving on to some other programs or some other things that we offer we do blood pressure checks and blood sugar check so if you're a citizen here in town and you're having some issues and you need to get your blood pressure check you can stop by and we can do that and whatnot so those are those are some of the programs that we have to offer yeah really a lot of community outreach on those and schools and everything else so you know I know I think all the fire departments offer those smoke detectors free you come out and do that as you mentioned but a lot of people may not realize that but do you do a lot of that yes and no you know it is I guess it would kind of come in spell but we do more than people probably realize which is a good thing because there again if you go back and look at fire safety and and fire in general early detection is going to get the residents out of the home quicker and also is going to allow them to notify 911 to get us and route earlier so that we can get there sooner and and get the fire put out and kind of minimize the damage yeah you know early notification is the key and so that that smoke detector it can obviously be a lifesaver and it's very very much needed you know one thing we while we're on that subject we like to always tell people to make sure to check your detector make sure to change the batteries at least twice a year and we always say change them when the time changes you know you fall back and you spring forward that's a good time to go ahead and slap in a new battery to ensure that it's going to be functioning the way it should mm-hmm yeah oh yeah don't forget the batteries on that yeah and never good when you go respond to a fire and smoke detectors are there and and they batteries are dead or the there's no batteries in them that's an awful situation right you got that right yeah okay well I'll always remember going to the the ceremony there for the the 9/11 memorial there at the fire station downtown Reed'sville that was such a such a moving time for all of us but you have that special September 11th event coming up yes sir you are correct that will be coming up September 11th at 9 a.m. and it's gonna be held here at station one at our 9/11 memorial kind of a little I guess interesting fact on the 9/11 memorial that the artist was Jim Galushi I believe is how you say his last name and he actually was able to obtain a piece of the I beam from the World Trade Center so part of that memorial out there that he created that contains the pieces of the I beam that come out of one of the World Trade Centers yeah and that was incorporated in and in this kind of interesting you know and I've not a lot of places have that and it's kind of neat to have that here at Reed'sville fire but yeah that will be September the 11th at 9 a.m. we'll be having a ceremony here it'll be the fire department in conjunction with the police department also you know other city officials and whatnot will be present just you know kind of a short ceremony to remember that tragic day in the events that took place that day yeah okay all right so that is and that's a Wednesday this year so it is actually on September 11th 9 a.m. right yeah station one okay well gosh you've covered a lot here and I appreciate that we all do we appreciate you and your your team there anything else you needed to mention I don't think so Mike I appreciate your time and giving us the opportunity to kind of talk about the fire department and what the fire department does and as you mentioned we're very customer service oriented and want to provide the best service we can to our citizens and if they ever need anything all they got to do is reach out to us here at station one or obviously if it's an emergency call 911 and get us in route but we're always here to help any way we can what's the best number to get to someone there if they just want to talk to you about some of the programs you're doing get some things like that schedule sure so the easiest way to get in touch with us here would be call the main station and the number would be three four nine one zero two four one zero two four I'm jotting that down here so three three six three four nine one zero two four okay yes well this is a great to have this conversation thank you Seth Durham assistant fire chief and fire Marshall for the city of Reed's role thank you Seth thank you Mike appreciate okay appreciate you all right bye what a what a very important interesting podcast with our folks in fire service there in Reed's will again let me mention that September 11th event that's at station one fire police a number of people involved in that that starts at 9 a.m. try to get to that if you can and again the main number there for the fire station 3 3 6 3 4 9 10 24 get more information on what's happening around the city at riseupreadsville.com [BLANK_AUDIO]