Columbia Falls fire department needs a few good men and women

Unlike other cities in the Flathead Valley, the men and women in Columbia Falls who respond to fires, accidents and just about every other emergency, are volunteers. The only paid member of the staff is fire chief Rick Hagen.

They need your help. They need you to maybe drive a fire truck to a fire or offer a helping hand to an elderly woman as she’s lifted onto an ambulance. They need you to guide traffic at a wreck or use the jaws of life to extricate a victim.

Right now the Columbia Falls Fire Department has 23 volunteers, Hagen said. It would like to have at least five more, eight would be great.

You don’t have to be experienced, Hagen and his fellow firefighters note. The qualifications aren’t strict. You have to be 18, have a driver’s license and a high school diploma or equivalent and pass a background check and physical. You also have to live in the fire district, which includes the City of Columbia Falls and an area surrounding it from the Flathead River west to the Whitefish River and south to the north end of the airport. 

The Columbia Falls force is aging. Hagen is 61. The average is about 45. The youngest is a woman, Courtney Tamburelli, 23, who followed in her father, Joe Tamburelli’s footsteps.

The current volunteers said they offer their service for a multitude of reasons. For one, they like to help people out. It’s a lot of fun.

“I do it to help out the community,” said volunteer Tom Kemppainen.

“We encourage women to apply,” said volunteer Shawn Bates.

Hagen said he does it because it’s not a job everyone can do. But he admits, “driving a big red fire truck is a blast.”

While sometimes things go wrong, many times they go right. Last winter with just a skeleton crew late at night, they saved a house that had a portion of its roof in flames when they arrived.

Makes you feel good when that happens.

The staff has training every Thursday night for a couple of hours. It’s interesting stuff, like how to best respond to an accident at the Blue Moon intersection, or which foam puts out which fire.

There’s also basic training, such as first aid and other life saving skills. All told, a volunteer, if they attend all the training sessions, gets about 70 hours of training a year.

It’s all free, provided by the department.

Folks interested in applying or just to get more information can call Hagen directly at 892-3911.