Joint Meeting: Three Forks Volunteer Fire Department seeking new members

The Three Forks Volunteer Fire Department needs new members.

At last week’s annual Joint Meeting with the Three Forks City Council, Fire Chief Keith Aune reported there are currently 13 of the 28 allowed volunteers.

Aune told the governing body that they ask people to volunteer whenever the department is at a public function. Aune asked the Council if it would be possible to put something on the water bill to announce they are seeking additional volunteers. Aune reported there were 19 volunteers in 2022.

Aune reported the department had 159 calls in 2023 and said, unfortunately, two of the three calls they have been paged to in 2024 have been fatal accidents.

Regarding turnout for calls, Aune said it has been pretty good after regular work hours, with six to eight firefighters responding to calls. He added that anywhere from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., they are looking at two to three firefighters responding to calls.

Aune said it has always been a struggle to get higher numbers to respond to calls during the day, and it is getting worse.

In other news from the joint meeting, Broadwater County Commissioner Darrel Folkvord gave an update on the proposed Emergency Services Facility that would be constructed on three acres of donated land on the east side of U.S. 287 in the Wheatland Targeted Economic Development District (TEDD) near Three Forks.

Folkvord said he just received a final draft of the Preliminary Architecture Report (PAR) for the facility that would house fire, law enforcement, search and rescue, and emergency response services.

Folkvord said the next step would be to present the PAR to the public to get their response, and he would guess the building is at least a year or two away.

“From here on, it is going to take a lot of citizen response and interaction to move this forward,” he said.

JOINING THE DEPARTMENT

Those interested in learning more are invited to attend the Three Forks Volunteer Fire Department weekly meetings on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at the Fire Hall at 13 E. Date Street. Aune told the Voice last year the department provide training and can find a job for anyone.

According to a post from the department’s Facebook page, they completely understand that some people are not fit to do every task, but there is always a task that can be done.

Applications to join the department are available at City Hall or online at http://www.threeforksmontana.us. Prospective firefighters must also pass a background check.