The Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department set a new record for emergency
responses in 2009 at 809. Specifically in the month of December the AVFD
responded to 38 calls for assistance with 24 being Emergency Medical First
Responder calls, 8 Motor Vehicle Accidents, 2 structure fires, 2 service
calls, and 2 false alarms. During 2009, the AVFD responded to 470
Emergency medical First Responder calls and Motor Vehicle Accidents with
the Anderson County EMS. AVFD Chief Bagwell said, " with the addition of
the new first responder vehicle we should be able to reduce operating
costs for first responder calls while enhancing services at the same
time." In 2009 the AVFD responded to 74 Structure fires with an
estimated property loss of $1.9 million. Also in 2009, the AVFD responded
to 106 false alarms, or "Good Intent Calls", 95 Service calls, which are
mainly assisting people at their homes, 9 hazardous materials incidents,
and 55 weather related emergencies.

The Average Response time to all emergencies was 5 minutes. "This is a
direct affect of having our volunteer firefighters staff our main station
in Andersonville," said Bagwell. "We've been very lucky to have highly
trained and motivated members, who have a huge desire to serve their
fellow man and make a difference in folks lives at potentially the worst
time of their lives. The majority of our firefighters are now State
Certified Firefighters (which is the same certifications achieved by paid
departments throughout the State of Tennessee), and all but 7 of the 39
firefighters are medically trained with 5 being trained to the Paramedic
level, and 7 being trained to the EMT level. Of the 7 that are not
medically trained currently, 6 will be certified within 6 months." "As
you can tell, the community should consider themselves lucky to have such
a level of protection that a lot of communities simply don't have."
Firefighters at the AVFD are required to maintain 40 hours of "fire
training" annually, and medically trained personnel are required to attend
County EMS training provided by Anderson County Emergency Medical
Services.

In 2009, the busiest month was March with 79 calls for assistance, May was
the second busiest with 70, and November was the slowest month with 28,
but was the most costly with almost $800,000 in losses. On average, the
busiest days of the week was Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with the
busiest times being between 4pm and 12 midnight. Firefighter personnel
spent almost a combined 900 hours of training for calendar year 2009.
These figures do not include the time spent by our volunteers, holding
fund raising events such as boot drives, chilli suppers, concession booths
at the fair and other events, as well as working on fund raising letters
that go out twice a year to the community that we are so proud to serve.

The AVFD is always looking for volunteers! If you would like to come join
our team protecting out Great Community, please call the station at
494-0563, or visit your fire station on Mountain Road and fill out an
application. We are always looking for highly motivated people who are
interested in doing a host of tasks, not only being firefighters, but also
tanker drivers, administrative support, and fund raising support persons.
We are currently in the process of installing smoke alarms in our
community. If you are in need of a smoke detector, please call the main
station at the number previously mentioned, or come by and complete the
form needed to acquire the detector. An AVFD firefighter will come and
install the detector free of charge. PLEASE DON'T WAIT UNTIL IT'S TOO
LATE!! These detectors were acquired through a DHS FEMA grant and are
FREE to the community. Please visit our web site at www.tnavfd.com for
the latest AVFD news and information.