Concerning News For Brownfield

The Fire Chief’s quarterly report is in, and the updates left some council members concerned at this week’s City Council meeting. Once Fire Chief Dennis Rowe finished his report, City Council member Michelle Cooper was concerned about staffing. She asked, “so on scheduling do we have two fully certified (firemen) on staff?” Chief Rowe responded, “we’d like to…but sometimes it doesn’t always work that way.” He then explained that the other night he was the only one on shift because “one guy was out with an injury and another guy was out because of a certification issue.” She asked, “so what happens in that situation? If you or anybody is on shift by themselves and we have an event, what happens?” He replied, “well hopefully the volunteers show up to help.” Then he added that he can guarantee two firemen at any time. He explained that Brownfield has always relied heavily on volunteers. “It kinda just is what it is, but with one on duty like me the other night, whatever event we have I’m gonna be there and hope that we have enough help to show up. Maybe some of the paid will come in and some of the volunteers will come in and we’ll get the job done,” said the fire chief. He concluded, “ yeah it’s a handicap, I’m not going to pretend it’s not, it is. Even with the two on duty it’s a handicap.” Staffing and certification issues continue to be an issue for Brownfield’s fire department, but Chief Rowe was accepting of the situation as is, and confident in his crew’s ability to handle situations, despite the “handicap.”