L’Observateur / June 5, 1999

The death of a 1-year-old child in a trailer fire this week also brought attention to a growing need in St. John the Baptist Parish. With the rapidpopulation and developmental growth in the LaPlace area, attention might be spent toward making a paid fire department a reality at last.

It would not be the only milestone achieved by the department. TheLaPlace VFD, which recently celebrated its 40th birthday, was the first volunteer department to get its own two-way radio system in 1967. In1974, the department was the first to upgrade from a 10 to a 7 fire insurance rating. Since then, it has reached a 3 – the highest possible withan all-volunteer department, along with several other departments across the River Parishes.

With the snowballing of development and new construction in all directions, the need for more fire stations and more volunteer firefighters is a vital need now. New stores, new hotels, new residences are springingup like mushrooms across the town.

Response time is excellent now, but it would improve even more with a full-time, 24-hour paid squad.

Being a firefighter is sometimes a thankless job. It takes a hard-nosedcommitment, not only to be available for fires but also for all the training classes necessary and to make that all-important decision to help your neighbors.

Sometimes, a firefighter will hear people complain that “it took so long for you to get here,” even though they are volunteers and had to be torn away from their own jobs or other responsibilities.

Being a firefighter means being there to help everyone, no matter who they are, fighting and putting your life on the line for someone else’s life and property.

However, a paid department would not only attract more interested men and women to the department but also provide that extra level of protection to all our citizens by making response as instant as possible.

A paid department would also help surrounding communities, as it does now, with mutual aid for major emergencies. It would perform an evenmore vital function in cases of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, with that extra manpower so vital at such times.

It would also be a source of community pride that the LaPlace VFD could again be the pioneer in providing quality fire protection services for its friends and neighbors.

Another help for the department would be for more residents to make sure their house numbers are correct and visible from the street to assist response by emergency personnel.

One neighbor of Tuesday night’s tragedy called for a town meeting to discuss the possibility of finding the money and upgrading the LaPlace VFD into a professional-level, paid department, ready and responsive to the growing community’s needs.

Funding could be difficult to arrange and may come to a tax election to establish and maintain the money it would take. However, if thecommunity is ready for that extra level of protection, it would be worth the expense. Lives could hang in the balance down the road, and having apaid department could make a life-or-death difference It’s an idea worth discussing, at least to get the ball rolling. We muststart somewhere.

L’Observateur

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