The Candia Volunteer Firefighters Association members are asking that you support our paid call warrant article.  The members of the association in the fall of 2007 set up a compensation committee to research how other Fire Departments were compensated.

The compensation committee was made up of 3 people.  The first step was a questionnaire to find out each of the Firefighters / EMT's thoughts on pursuing paid call were.  The results were overwhelming in favor.  Each member of the committee was assigned several different fire departments in this area of comparable size and call volume as the Candia Fire Rescue Department.  When assigned the department, the committee member was to contact members of the department, including officers in that department and discuss the pro's and con's on being paid call, how they made the transition from being volunteer to paid call, and the different wages of the firefighters.  All of the fire departments interviewed were volunteer departments at one time.

The members of the committee put in months of research, countless hours on the phone, and talking in person to the members of other fire departments, and the chiefs of those departments.  Much to some disbelief this compensation to the volunteers diverted towns from having to pay for full time firefighters.  On average most towns went from 5-7 years before adding full time firefighters.  Some departments started out with paying their firefighters a stipend, some paid their firefighters a base rate per call, and others paid their firefighters an hourly wage while on calls.  Now nearly 90% of the fire departments pay firefighters an hourly wage per call they are working based on rank and certifications, which is what you see on the warrant article.

Candia within the past few years has gone through some critical changes to its membership.  The department has seen some very active members retire, and few people from in town filing in those large gaps, thus the reason for accepting people from out of town to join the Candia Fire Rescue Department.  This has caused a shortage of personnel for calls, and in some cases calls not getting answered by Candia Fire Rescue members.

This year the Candia Fire Rescue Department was given the chance to have an Internship program within the department.  This position gave the citizens of Candia a full time firefighter at the cost of $7000.00 for one year, an excellent bargain!  This full time firefighter is at the station and available for medical emergencies and fire emergencies on normal work hours during the week.  This position is active until October of 2009.  The Board of Selectmen decided NOT to put forth the warrant article that would have continued this position into the next year.  This will again leave the citizens of Candia vulnerable during daytime hours.

With this warrant article the members of the association are hoping to get more interest within the town limits, increase the activity levels with our current staff, and help to defer some of the costs associated with being a member of the Candia Fire Rescue Department.  Some of these costs include but are not limited to: station uniforms, fuel, time, and in some cases lost wages from leaving work to respond to an emergency within the Town of Candia.

The members of the Candia Volunteer Firefighters Association are asking for your support in all of the Fire Dept. related warrant articles submitted.  Feel free to contact us with any and all questions at info@candiafire.com.

Thank you in advance for your continued support!