Vol. Dept.'s involvement

[JBJ1202 27]

I saw on News 12 today that 6 members of the Vista FD are going down to assist in the relief effort. I was wondering if anybody knows what agency they are going through and if any other vol. dept's are considering sending some of their own? In reading other posts, i understand that FEMA is paying vol. firefighters to be "Disaster Assistance Employees". Are any department considering applying members for that? Does anybody know of other organizations that are requesting vol. firefighters for paid or vol. work?

Thank You

JBJ

[firecapt32 282]

heres my 2 cents if any one goes please check with insurance companies to see if you are covered if you are god bless and gods speed.

[TRUCK6018 50]

heres  my  2 cents  if  any one  goes  please  check with insurance companies to see if you are covered  if  you are god bless and gods speed.

My reply to this from another thread:

The only way one would be covered by the VFBL (Volunteer Firefighters Benefit Law) is if the response was a mutual aid request, period.

If Joe Schmo and Joe Blow decided to team up together, call FEMA and go, they will not be covered!

If you chief gets a request from the county that FEMA is requesting a deployment, and the chief signs off on it, then you would be covered.

If you contact FEMA directly and they approve you going with compensation ($$), I would think you are an employee of FEMA and will get no insurance coverage from your local agency.

[ajsbear 11]

TRUCK6018 you are correct.

If called by and employed by FEMA, they cover you,

If you go as a FEMA volunteer you are still covered by them.

If you go and FEMA did not ask you or your department. You are not covered under the Mutual Aid portion of you fire companies insurance.

The only thing you can hope for is under the "good samaritan act" which does not cover much. If your car gets broken into or stolen or you are in an accident, your insurance may not pay or at least give you a hard time. While we all want to go myself included think of the risks involved. Legally nyour department is under no obligation to cover you in any way and the insurance companies won't.

[TRUCK6018 50]

One thing I forgot to add:

If anyone decides to go on their own free will to "help out", you are doing nothing but freelancing. You will be getting in the way and are undermining any accountability there might be.

[Guest Forman141]

hey im one of the vista members sent down, im was deployed to little rock ark. after four days of waiting in atlanta and fema covers everything

[Guest]

hey im one of the vista members sent down, im was deployed to little rock ark. after four days of waiting in atlanta and fema covers everything

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The last post was that they are not accepting any applications. The link says this. I went and secured 2 weeks off from work gratis from my company, but they say "no more" applications. See the link.

You guys that just left when did you put in your applications? They guy I talked to on the phone says that anyone leaving now put in apps long ago?

http://www.usfa.fema.gov/about/media/katrina.shtm This last post if from Sept 5th.

Also, what is the deal with FDNY putting fires out on the news when it says that firefighters are being put in non-operational roles?

[cas2383 22]

2 members from my dept. in CT just got sent down, will be leaving this coming monday. I beleive their applications went in last week, could be wrong.

Edited September 10, 2005 by cas2383

[Guest ksneubec]

To answer a few questions-

The volunteer FD members have been hired by FEMA. They do not cover us with insurance, but the workman's comp insurance provided by each individual member's departments will still cover us.

No more applications are being accepted. I believe they capped the total at 2000 for both career and volunteer firefighters.

This is NON-OPERATIONAL work- my understanding is that only 40 of the 1500 that have been deployed are actually working in FD operations. The rest of us have been trained as Community Relations Specialists, as FEMA calls us. Basically, we are working with survivors in helping to arrange things they might need immediately (i.e. first aid, water, etc) or long term (money from FEMA).

MOST of us are getting sent to shelters, mostly away from the disaster area (i.e. Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, etc.) Only a lucky few are going into the disaster areas.

Deployment is taking a long time. They are still working on deploying FFs who arrived here in Atlanta on Tuesday. I got here Wed, so I am hoping to be deployed tomorrow, but maybe even Tues.

I have not heard of agencies that are setting up operational work.

Red Cross is looking for 40,000 more volunteers as of yesterday.