They risk their lives every time they answer a fire call and they all volunteer for the duty.
The volunteer firefighters for Pratt and all the township fire crews take on the dangerous task of fighting fires whether it’s a structure, a field of CRP, a vehicle fire or one of their other duties and they do it because they want to do it.
“It’s a volunteer based service for the city and entire county,” said Pratt Fire Chief David Kramer.
The number of calls varies greatly for city and county fire crews from year to year. It can be many days or weeks between calls whether for fire or accident assistance.
The city firefighters all have other jobs. When a fire call comes in, each firefighter goes directly from their location to the fire. Since the firefighters work in a variety of locations, a firefighter arrives on the scene quickly and starts assessing the situation, said Pratt Fire Chief David Kramer.
Firefighter Casey Pritchett works for Pratt Glass and carries his bunker gear in his pickup with him wherever he goes. When he arrives at the site of a fire he has to put on the bunker gear quickly.
“We have to put on the gear in less then a minute,” Pritchett said.
The city has three drivers that are full time city employees. Besides driving the truck they also help setup and take down events in the Municipal Building, clean city hall and the community center, said truck driver Heath Hensley.
They rotate through the Monday-Friday shift from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. A driver is on-call at night and is responsible for getting the truck to a fire. Usually, all three drivers will respond to a nighttime call, Kramer said.
From 7 a.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Monday one driver is on duty constantly at the firehouse. The other drivers are Eric Welch and Jerry Aramowicz.
City and Township 12 firefighters are paid $25 every time they answer a fire call. City firefighters receive $10 for every training session. The city firefighters meet every Wednesday for training to sharpen skills and learn new techniques.
“Our training is very, very important to us,” Kramer said.
Besides answering fire calls and training, Pratt firefighters participate in numerous community activities like safety programs and Pratt Night Out.
Like the city firefighters, the Township 12 firefighters all have other jobs. When any call comes in some firefighters will go to the fire station and get the trucks while others will go directly to the fire call.
