Nine volunteer fire departments surround Lubbock County. All with primary jobs who donate their time to respond to emergencies across the South Plains.
“It’s a family like no other, everybody takes care of everybody,” West Carlisle Volunteer Fire EMS Kevin Hendricks said.
Those first responders wake up out of bed to rush over to the station to help on a fire in their area. It’s a job Hendricks has done with West Carlisle for the last 10 years and still never hesitates to put on the uniform.
“Fire burns the same,” Hendricks said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a volunteer firefighter or a paid. The main difference is that they can get to a fire a lot quicker than we can just because they are staffed at the station. With us we have to be coming from our house, from work, wherever it may be. We’ve got to come here, get the truck, then go to the fire.”
With his experience, Hendricks is able to suit up in under a minute. A skill necessary to respond to an emergency.
“It goes through the training, we’re trained to mentally prepare ourselves and physically also,” Hendricks said. “We have to stay in fairly decent shape in order to wear this, and it comes a lot with experience.”
With temperatures reaching up to 110 degrees Thursday and 112 degrees June 24, Hendricks said special training is involved to ensure first-responder’s safety.
Eight to ten firefighters respond to a call within nine minutes under new city standards.
Their eight part uniform includes different protective and safety gear that could weigh between 45 and 75 pounds.
“Especially on these days where it’s reaching 100 degrees or more if we have to get in it, we try not to let them stay in it for too long,” Hendricks said. “We can tell, we’re like ‘Hey you look like you’re getting over worked you need to go take your stuff off and calm down for a little bit,’ which is the hardest for a firefighter to do is take this off and go sit down while there is still a fire going down. But sometimes you have to do because safety is our number one priority.”
With mandatory breaks, he added staying hydrated, cautious and alert are all necessary while on the job.
West Carlisle added that they are always looking for more volunteers. Anyone who is interested can go to the station in north-west Lubbock to find more information. Their meetings are on the first and third Monday’s of the month at 7:30 p.m.
