From the Desk of 809

From the desk of 809,

Looking back on 2022, and how the post-pandemic has still affected our community and the volunteers have been able to continually press forward and have a positive impact for our community and department. It has been a challenge getting back into interacting with the community that we live in; this year we were able to put on multiple functions, in partnership with the career staff. We were able to get back to functions like the Easter Breakfast, the Firehouse Spaghetti Feed, the Breakfast with Santa, and the Hot Foot 5K run (headed up by Scott Lucke) that supports our annual Community Scholarship Fund. The community attendance to these functions was lower than normal this past year, but we believe that it will improve in 2023. This year was the first year we were able to get back at it since 2019. We know that we will need to work on the PR/marketing side of our functions this coming year, to get the word out to the citizens that, “we are back”.

This summer we had 5 volunteers attend the Washington State Annual Fire School and Conference in Wenatchee. At the annual banquet at end of the conference, our very own Captain Gary Chasteen was recognized and awarded the Volunteer Fire Officer of the Year award. Gary has been a member of SKFR for 35 years, and is highly deserving of this award.

We brought 10 new volunteers onboard this year. While we have lost a few this year who were successfully hired as career firefighters, or other transitions, we have maintained 31 members in the suppression or support roles, and 4 members in administrative roles. We anticipate increasing those numbers after the first of the year when 6 members who are on leave of absence should be rejoining the ranks, which will increase us back up to around 41 volunteers. On December 8th, the commissioners will approve four more new volunteers to start on January 3rd.

The volunteers continue to train as much as we can. We had 3 volunteers officers certify at the state fire training center as co-op instructors for live fire/burn classes. 2 volunteers did the 5-month long recruit Firefighter 1 academy; one recruit was in Mason County, and 1 at Vashon Island this year. Recruit Dawson Allen graduated from the South Sound Fire Academy (Vashon) and was class Valedictorian and Recruit Colby Failing graduating from the Mason County academy. 4 volunteers completed an EMT academy this past year also and are now EMT-Basic. Congratulations to FF Josh Thompson, FF Wyatt Brooks, FF Kris Edwards, and FF Robert Davis. And, LT Carl Bryant and FF Sam Marshall who are currently in the Kitsap County EMT academy, and scheduled to graduate soon. We have added another EVIP instructor to our ranks, LT Ramon Marin, who took a EVIP instructor class and certified this Fall. Along with a few of these specifics I have mentioned, the volunteers have continued with the wildland training this past summer. We had 10

volunteers gain their Wildland FF2 RED Card certification this year. LT Maples, LT Bryant, LT Bishop, FF Thompson, FF Marshall, FF Woodside, FF Kyle Williams, FF William Torres, FF Kris Edwards, and FF Kiel wright.

The Support Battalion put in-service the new air unit this year, along with adding the REHAB equipment to the new Air 17, due to Rehab 7 being retired from further service. Between learning a new air unit, and a new air compressor installed at Station 17, the Support crew has been busy training with their new toys.

In January 2022 we promoted three volunteer Lieutenants. Albert bishop and John Baldus were promoted to first responder lieutenants and Ramon Marin was promoted to Air/Rehab Lieutenant. All three are doing a great job.

The volunteers conducted two live training fires this year at the Bremerton Training Center (BTC), one in the spring, and the second this fall. The suppression volunteers worked on honing their FF hose stream skills, and the support volunteers worked on honing their Rehab and air support skills.

The volunteer association is continually working on grant opportunities thru organizations such as Puget Sound Energy, a Suquamish tribe, Kitsap Community Foundation, and GESA to name a few. We had a very successful Bingo Fundraiser at Everybody’s American Cookhouse that raised $940.00 for the Chaplains Fund. We have been invited back for another Bingo Fundraiser after the professional football season ends in 2023. We look forward to the annual Santa Runs, headed up by Mike and Debi Smith, with all donated food items going to the South Kitsap Helpline, and the monetary donations going to the Chaplains Fund.

In summary…it is amazing on what our Volunteers are able to accomplish over the years. This year, what we/they have been able to accomplish is no exception. I am looking forward to 2023, and what lays ahead of us for the Volunteers.

“809 clear for now…”

Battalion Chief Joe Guseman