Hill Fire Rescue

I wanted to take a moment to write a quick post for the website about a new and unique opportunity that the Hill Fire Department will be starting on August 24th.
The department has two members that will be starting college at Lakes Region Community College (LRCC) in the Fire Science program this year. The Fire Science program at LRCC has an outstanding reputation, especially in the New England area, as one of the top Fire Science programs in the country. One of the options under this degree program allows students to complete a “live-in” or internship program during their tenure at the college.
Seeing an opportunity to provide a higher level of service to the town and to provide these two individuals with a better learning experience, the department set up and will be conducting a modified “live-in” program (due to the station not being set up with sleeping arrangements).
Beginning on Monday August 24, 2009 the station will be staffed by the two students and an officer Monday through Friday from 8:00am until 4:30pm. The only exception to this is when the students are committed to class at the college, at which time staffing may be limited. We will post a schedule as soon as both students schedules are in place to provide further guidance.
One of the major advantages to this program is that as a “live-in”, students may not be paid unless they respond to a request for service. In keeping with our willingness to put the town first, the officers have agreed to assist with staffing without pay unless they respond to an emergency call. This means the routine staffing is essentially “free labor”.
While staffing the station the staff will be available to answer questions, issue fire permits, conduct inspections, and assist the townspeople in any way a full time fire department would with in the scope of our resources.
While we are very excited about this program starting, we also realize that this is a very new, very big change for the town and department. With that being said we will be using the first couple of months as a trial basis and will adjust staffing times if needed. If there are any questions, please stop by the station or give us a call and we will make every effort to make changes to further accommodate the towns needs.