Libby VFD continues its dedication to community

Most Libby residents know the value of their volunteer fire department and after a report at last week’s city council meeting, there are concrete numbers to back it up.

Libby City Council President Brian Zimmerman presented the department’s 2023 annual fire report at the Feb. 20 meeting.

The biggest number shared in the report was the $106,590 that the department’s work saved city taxpayers in 2023.

The calculations were determined by adding the department’s incident response to the training time and multiplying it by $30 per hour.

The department’s members spent more than 3,500 hours in skills, classroom training and responding to calls, including fires, traffic accidents, HAZMAT situations, false alarms and medical emergency calls.

Fire Chief Steve Lauer said the department doesn’t specifically answer medical calls, but does assist at times when extra help is needed, such as medical lifts, by Libby Volunteer Ambulance.

"Libby Volunteer Ambulance is automatically paged to all fires and accidents as well as medical calls," Lauer said.

The department responded to 103 calls in 2023, the lowest amount since they had 93 in 2018. Since 1992, the fewest amount of calls they had was 75 in 2011.

The average from 1992 to 1999 was 140 per year with a high of 153 in ’99. 2007 had 207 calls and was the department’s highest call total since provided numbers dating back to 1992.

2023’s 103 calls included 37 in the city, 45 in the county and 21 out of the district. 

Lauer also said he thinks the decrease in call volume over the last 30 years is due to a number of factors.

He said the department has fewer calls for fires involving wood stoves, fewer medical assistance and efforts in education.

“I believe our fire prevention program may also have something to do with fewer calls,” Lauer said.

Last fall, during fire prevention week in October, fire officials expanded on the 2020 campaign addressing fire safety in the kitchen, to putting emphasis on the importance of remaining attentive while cooking and taking additional precautionary measures to prevent non-fire cooking burn injuries. 

According to the National Fire Prevention Association, cooking fires remain the leading cause of home fires and injuries. 

Each year during fire prevention week, the Libby Volunteer Fire Department personnel actively participates by visiting Libby area schools to provide a fire prevention and safety education program. Kids get a firsthand look at the fire trucks and fire equipment and the opportunity to engage in an entertaining learning environment.

The LVFD personnel’s involvement continues with reaching out to interested area businesses, community organizations, and special interest groups to answer questions relating to fire safety and fire prevention while focusing on the proper procedures to update and maintain smoke alarms in the business and home.

The department, which was formed in 1911, maintains a ISO Fire Protection Class 3 rating. For area homeowners, that’s money in the bank because the better the rating, the lower the insurance rates.

“The rating comes from a combination of entities working together, including Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch, City of Libby water department, community risk reduction and the fire department,” Lauer said. 

According to Brad Bain, vice president of ISO Community Hazard Mitigation at Verisk, Libby remains a Class 3 department, along with 11 others in Montana.

"There are no departments in Montana have achieved a class 1, there is one department that’s a class 2 but there are now 12 departments that are class 3," Bain said. 

Most of the other departments with a three rating are all city, paid departments. 

Other data shared in the 2023 fire report showed the average response time, from dispatch to all apparatus arriving on scene, to all calls was a bit over 12 minutes. For calls in the city, the average response time was a little more than six minutes, about 11 minutes in the rural fire district and 23 minutes for calls out of the district.

Lauer said the support of the the fire district and city is very important.

“If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll be fine,” he said.

Also, four fire department members are headed to the 33rd annual Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Firefighter Stairclimb on March 10 in Seattle.

According to the department, the 2024 competition will mark Neil Benson's 10th time as a participant while Brian Hobday is headed to his eighth and Jason Sunell his sixth. Lauer is joining the team for the first time.

Those who want to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on their behalf, can visit the LVFD team's LLS Stairclimb fundraising page at https://www.llswa.org/site/TR/LLSWA/llswaFF?team_id=75094&pg=team&fr_id=1750&fbclid=IwAR3rxWRWALCJmyvkxOrdZmdrfoEJqjHmtEGtC1F--AhccJ1vpo3IE9eFBTc.