North-West Fire Protection District, serving the communities of Alma, Fairplay, and the surrounding areas, is excited about a schedule change. As of January 1, the fire district has full time staffing at the Fairplay Station 24-hours a day.

The district has hired two firefighters, bringing the total to six. These six firefighters are split into crews of two and rotate for 24-hour shifts from the station. The volunteers then respond in a second apparatus to work the calls.

“One of the primary reasons for the change was safety”, according to Chief Mike Roll. “The second leading cause of injury or fatality to firefighters is vehicle accidents. We felt that by having staff on hand we could eliminate the time our firefighters were on the road because they no longer have to respond from home. It also dramatically reduces our response time, and for fires and medicals those first minutes can be critical.”

The crew will be working a Modified Kelly Shift, which is a rotation of 24-hours on, followed by 24-hours off, working three shifts. The firefighters then receive four days off and the cycle starts over.

This schedule also allows some flexibility for the volunteers at NWFPD. They can either choose to stay at the fire station and be a member of the crew on duty, or they can respond from home when they are available to assist on calls.

“It is an exciting time for us. With the expected growth in this region we felt it was important to get this in place now in order to best serve our communities.”