Spotlight - Fire Department Needs

Township Fire Department, otherwise known as TFD serves and is supported by five towns: Brunswick, Pleasant Valley, Seymour, Union, and Washington.  Each town has a fire station. The Washington fire station is part of the Town Municipal Building.  Each station is equipped with trucks and volunteers.

In addition to TFD’s firefighting role, it also provides for first responders.  This division is a group of Emergency Medical Responders called Emergicare.  Emergicare personnel are called to respond whenever an ambulance is dispatched.  This service is especially critical given the rural nature of the towns and the sometimes longer response times for an ambulance to come from Eau Claire.

TFD is faced with 2 major challenges going forward…funding and volunteers.      

Funding for TFD is primarily from the 5 member towns.  For 2024 that funding totaled $540,000.  The total is assigned proportionately to each town based on equalized value. For 2025 our share is projected to increase by $10,000 or 5% but this falls far behind the skyrocketing cost of fire trucks.  As an example, TFD is expecting to take delivery of a fire engine late this year that was ordered 3 years ago at a cost of $514,000.  That same truck ordered today will be over 1 million dollars.

TFD is built on the willingness of civic minded people, LIKE YOU (and your sons and daughters), to step up to be a firefighter or medical first responder.  Although Washington is the largest town, we have the fewest number of firefighters of any other TFD station. You must be 18, but there is also a student firefighter program for 16 to 18 year olds.