The culture of the La Vergne Fire Department is one of growth and has been ever since it was purchased by the City in January 2014. But with that culture comes its own set of challenges that the emergency personnel of the department are willing and capable of taking head on.
Since purchasing the department, there have been 89 structure fires of which five were a total loss, making up just 5.6%. Four fires were a 75% loss (4.5%), 11 were a 50% loss (12.4%), 37 were a 15% loss (41.6%) and 32 were a 5% loss (36%).
"They're doing everything they can, and they're doing an exceptional job at it," Chief Ronny Beasley said. "It's exciting to be coming to a department with a team of fire fighters who have a passion for their work, excel at saving life and property, and perform at their highest standards to get the job done."
The La Vergne Fire Department has a history of providing service to its citizens. The average response time is three minutes once a 911 call is made. The fire department prides itself on its baseline of training and is striving to push its employees to continue education to offer a more advanced level of care. The goal moving forward is to make the advanced level of training the "new standard" so they can continue to grow and offer more services to the citizens.
"These fire fighters are more equipped now than they've ever been in the history of the department and that's evident in the numbers and in the response times from our crews," Beasley said. "This is a very aggressive and well-trained department. They're doing an exceptional job and I'm really excited by that."
As they continue to move forward, a new challenge presents itself - staffing. LFRD hopes to continue to grow the department to meet the national average staffing standard and continue its consistency in service.
"Recognizing the City's growth, city (aldermen) have made huge strides in providing the needed fire personnel, but there's still room to expand our team and relieve some of the stress and pressures on the scene, reducing the opportunities of injury," Beasley said.
Part of the difficulties that come with staffing include the inability to house fire fighters in the city while on shift. There are three fire halls in the city that have limited space to expand. The City of La Vergne is planning on creating a new Fire Station No. 1 that will house more fire fighters and will serve as the Fire Department Headquarters, including more space for training and fire fighters as well as the Emergency Operations Center.
With the implementation of national training standards, LFD has maintained the tradition of hiring well-trained and dedicated employees. The department is always looking to be progressive in its training and hiring standards and looks for new employees who show a true love and dedication to the profession and are willing to put in the time and man-hours to keep up their training and their response times down.
By providing firefighters any advanced training that they need, the city is not only providing a safer atmosphere for those emergency responders, but they are adding additional services to the citizens.
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