The Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company (BVFC) was started in 1934 by a group of concerned citizens after St. Paul’s Church burned to the ground. There was no fire suppression organization, or water supply in Town. A call had to be made to Danbury to send trucks and bring water. By the time they got here it usually was too late for the building.
The group incorporated in 1936 as “The Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company, Incorporated,” a non-profit. They raised money, obtained an old tobacco barn on Route 25, Whisconier Road, and converted it to a Fire House, and bought a 1936 Ford fire truck. The original building is now an apartment house. The firemen had to pay their own way with donated funds because the taxpayers in the 1930’s could not. Town money was tight.
The Firemen also raised the money to build the Fire Station in Brookfield Center in 1954 on a half-acre of donated land. The Company owns this building and now runs the Ambulance service from this location. When the Fire Company needed to expand into a new building, the Town of Brookfield made the land at 92 Pocono Road, which they owned, available for this purpose. The Fire Company paid the architect and engineers directly: The Town issued 20-year bonds for the construction costs. The Fire Company is paying back the principal of the bonds to the Town, $67,500.00 per year. The company will have paid $1,725,000.00 to the Town when done: all from donated funds. The Town owns the building; the Company has guaranteed leases for a total of 60 years. This arrangement is good for the Town, and good for the Company, and even better for the taxpayers.
The BVFC is run by very dedicated and skillful volunteers. We have no employees, and the Town spends nothing for payroll for Firemen. Our town fathers estimate that the cost of a paid fire department might be two million dollars per year.
Very effective. Response time is good, 24/7. We require new members to take State firefighter courses, or EMT training. We drill weekly. We have mutual aid agreements with surrounding Towns. We now have a paid, contractor provided, paramedic in Town in the Center Station 24/7, and a contract EMT there 16 hours per day. Our volunteer EMTs fill in the rest. In today’s climate, the ambulance is frequently in use. We now make over 1400 ambulance runs per year, so often both ambulances are out, the second one is all volunteer EMT. We are licensed by the State Department of Health as the provider for Brookfield, with permission to bill at regulated rates. This innovative arrangement solved the staffing problems during the day and dramatically improved our response time. It is being copied by surrounding towns. The EMS operation is partly subsidized through the Town Budget, but the bulk of the costs are met through insurance billings.
Back to topWe have to be prepared for whatever happens. We get over 700 fire and motor vehicle accident calls per year for the firemen. And, there is no water system in Town. We have to carry our own water. Over half of the trucks are either tankers, or pumper-tankers. At the behest of the Fire Company, years ago a Town ordinance was passed, requiring housing developers and builders of commercial buildings to install cisterns with “dry hydrants” so we can “draft” water from these 10,000 gallon or greater sources for fire suppression. Some commercial building owners have pressurized these sources for their sprinkler systems, which saves them insurance cost, and is a fine idea as well. There are over 148 of these cistern systems in Town. We inspect and test each one of them every year.
Back to topNot exactly. The Legislature provided that Volunteer Firemen and EMS personnel could be eligible for a tax rebate on their personal or property taxes of up to $1,000. The Town did adopt the enabling ordinance. The purpose is to help with retention problems of volunteer organizations. The amount of the actual rebate is dependent on both degree of participation and years of service. It takes five years to get the maximum. All that time the volunteers are training and responding on their own time, with their own car and gasoline, 24 hours per day, every day, year-round. We do not expect that any member really profits very much, but we appreciate the recognition.
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