Another great meeting at The Pirates House this past Friday. There weren't any Rotary announcements so after Happy, Fines and Raffle, we went straight to our program. Ed Hissam introduced our speaker for the day - Wayne Noah, Fire Chief with Chatham Emergency Services.
Chatham Emergency Services was founded in 1961 and is a non-profit community based organization providing both Fire and EMS services. Their mission is to provide a high level of service at the most economic cost. They currently have 283 paid employees and 140 volunteers. Their funding is strictly through subscriptions. Chatam EMS receives over 65,000 calls a year. They employ 74 paramedics, 22 advanced EMT's, and 59 EMT's. They have 41 ambulances in their fleet with 24 staffed every day.
This past year, the Fire arm of the organization had over 5000 calls. There are 14 stations with personnel at all times and they have an ISO Class 2/2X rating which puts them in the top 2% in the nation. The typical cost to put out a fire is anywhere from $10,000 - $15,000. Chatham Emergency Services is investing in their future with new rigs, new fire stations, and a new training facility. Wayne ended by saying a fire can grow 4 times in size in under a minute. Every second counts so please evacuate your home and call them as soon as possible if there is a fire in your home.