Yancey's chief to staff: Train or leave

Firefighters at Preston L. Yancey Fire Company will spend more time training in the coming year or they’ll be asked to leave, company leaders said during the station’s monthly meeting Thursday.

In the wake of a round of meetings this week regarding the company’s rock-bottom insurance risk rating, which elicited concern from county supervisors and homeowners, the company’s leaders delivered a stern message.

“We’ve got everything on the line,” Assistant Chief John Kingsley said. “There are some major changes that are going to be effective immediately.”

The Board of Supervisors moved earlier this week to deal with the problems at Yancey hiring another career firefighter, expanding the fire due area of the county’s Company 10 to include Fishersville, and setting firm timelines for Yancey to meet training, volunteer and record-keeping goals needed for the department to improve its ISO rating of 10, the lowest possible.

“The damage is already done,” Kingsley said of the rating and public reaction. “We have to change our ways … to serve the community.”

Preston Yancey career and volunteer firefighters will have the opportunity to train eight hours per month.

“If you can’t make a minimum of five [hours] you’re out of here,” Chief Robert Gomez said.

Officials are also working on an automatic response agreement with Waynesboro’s fire crew.

Kingsley and Gomez said retired firefighters from Richmond and Charlottesville have volunteered to help with training and that they’ve met “people we never knew” interested in assisting since the ISO rating stirred up homeowners worried about public safety and higher insurance premiums.

They also want ISO, the New Jersey-based firm that assesses fire companies for the insurance industry — to return for a re-evaluation in a year.

Kingsley said the tough talk Thursday could scare off “one or two” volunteers.

“We have a young bunch that’s dedicated,” he said. “We want the dedicated ones.”

Supervisors have questioned why they did not hear about the rating from county staff or the fire company until two years after the threat of a downgrade and Wayne District Supervisor Wendell Coleman has asked for cost information regarding the possibility of Yancey becoming a career station under the control of Augusta County.

Preston Yancey covers a 33-square-mile area in Fishersville that includes about 7,000 structures.