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| A Message from the Chief |
Hello All,
Let me begin by introducing myself. I am Kim Jones, a 40+ year veteran of the
fire service. My calling to the fire service was not necessarily shocking as I come
from a long line of firefighters. My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were
was born in Arkansas, I spent the majority of my time in the fire service in Indiana
with the Sellersburg and McCulloch Fire Departments. I moved to Hancock County
and was originally a member of Post 58 VFD before joining West Hancock where I've
been chief for more than 12 years.
As many of you have seen either firsthand or watching the news, the fire service
of the past has been replaced by an entirely different beast. Fire departments no
longer just "put the wet stuff on the red stuff". On any given day, firefighters perform
vehicle extrications or respond to bomb threats at a local school or figure out how to
clean radioactive mess off the highway.
I pride myself and my department on our ability to recognize these changes. If
you've read the About Us section of this website, you can see that the area we
protect is a bit different than most. That means that we constantly have to be on our
toes to stay prepared to face any difficult task that may come our way. Through the
work of my firefighters, our department has come a long way in the past ten years.
Initially, my firefighters had to adapt to fighting fire with fire trucks and equipment
that only worked about 20% of the time. Within a few years, we became one of the
most prominent fire departments on the Gulf Coast. Eventually though, we dealt with
our largest challenge to date...Hurricane Katrina. After losing everything we had, we
managed to pull through and through much hard work, we are once again becoming
strong.
There is still much work to be done though. Much like other fire departments in
the nation, we are fighting our own battles with recruitment and money. Those
battles are not likely to be won anytime soon though. In the meantime, I can only be
grateful for my firefighters and to everyone else who has helped us along the way.
Thanks,
Chief Kim Jones
Let me begin by introducing myself. I am Kim Jones, a 40+ year veteran of the
fire service. My calling to the fire service was not necessarily shocking as I come
from a long line of firefighters. My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were
was born in Arkansas, I spent the majority of my time in the fire service in Indiana
with the Sellersburg and McCulloch Fire Departments. I moved to Hancock County
and was originally a member of Post 58 VFD before joining West Hancock where I've
been chief for more than 12 years.
As many of you have seen either firsthand or watching the news, the fire service
of the past has been replaced by an entirely different beast. Fire departments no
longer just "put the wet stuff on the red stuff". On any given day, firefighters perform
vehicle extrications or respond to bomb threats at a local school or figure out how to
clean radioactive mess off the highway.
I pride myself and my department on our ability to recognize these changes. If
you've read the About Us section of this website, you can see that the area we
protect is a bit different than most. That means that we constantly have to be on our
toes to stay prepared to face any difficult task that may come our way. Through the
work of my firefighters, our department has come a long way in the past ten years.
Initially, my firefighters had to adapt to fighting fire with fire trucks and equipment
that only worked about 20% of the time. Within a few years, we became one of the
most prominent fire departments on the Gulf Coast. Eventually though, we dealt with
our largest challenge to date...Hurricane Katrina. After losing everything we had, we
managed to pull through and through much hard work, we are once again becoming
strong.
There is still much work to be done though. Much like other fire departments in
the nation, we are fighting our own battles with recruitment and money. Those
battles are not likely to be won anytime soon though. In the meantime, I can only be
grateful for my firefighters and to everyone else who has helped us along the way.
Thanks,
Chief Kim Jones