STORY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT  

     FROM THE CHIEF

Story Volunteer Fire and Rescue is a small group of highly dedicated volunteers who sacrifice their personal time to protect the residents of Story and visitors to our community.  The Department provides the first response to any medical or fire emergency that occurs within the Story Fire District. We respond to any type of medical emergency such as falls, heart attacks, strokes, choking, accidents, severe illness, broken bones, diabetic emergencies or Life Link alarms.   

Other emergencies we respond to are structure or home fires, grass fires, forest fires, carbon monoxide, automobile, motorcycle, snowmobile or four wheeler accidents and propane leaks.  We respond to people’s homes, range land outside of Story and up the mountain on the trails.  We’ve even rescued a few cats from trees, saved a dog stuck on the ice and moved a llama that was injured in a fall so the vet could treat him.  We currently have medical equipment to care for pets and would like to get more, plus we’d like to get more training in animal emergency response. 

If Story Fire was not here, all emergency response would come from Sheridan with a 25 – 35 minute response time.  This longer response time could mean the difference in life or death, or the difference between minor fire damage and total loss of your home.  All property owners in the Story Fire District enjoy lower insurance rates due to the Department providing faster response than crews from Sheridan could.

Purchase and maintenance of the Department’s facilities, vehicles and equipment is provided by a combination of property taxes, a few State grants, fund raisers and donations.  Fund raisers and donations provide all of the funding for medical supplies and training expenses.  Our annual Fireman’s Breakfast during Story Days and your generous, tax deductible donations provide 20% – 25% of our total funding.   

In the past few years we’ve built a new fire hall partially funded through a State grant and purchased a tanker to supply additional water on fire scenes.  With no community water system, availability of water is a major concern in fighting a fire.  We are currently updating our breathing apparatus for firefighting, assembling an additional tanker from parts of old trucks and are just beginning to equip the fire hall for use as an emergency shelter.   The emergency shelter would be used to house people in the event of a severe blizzard, long term power outage, range fire, forest fire or similar event where resident cannot stay in their homes or travelers are trapped due to closed highways.  It would be a safe harbor and gathering point during a catastrophic event or prior to an evacuation, providing information, shelter, heat, water, bathroom facilities and showers, food and entertainment.  Stocking and equipping the emergency shelter will depend totally on donations.  We are currently working to obtain cots and bedding as well as emergency food.  Later this year, we plan to host Red Cross training for Emergency Shelter Operation and would welcome any volunteers that would like to help run the shelter.

In closing, I’d like to thank the Story community for your generous support in the past and hope you will continue to support the Department as we strive to become better trained and better equipped to serve you.   I’m very proud of my Fire Department crew and the great job they do.  I would also like to ask the residents of Story for a favor – When you see one of the firemen, please thank them for their service as your gratitude is the only compensation they receive for doing a difficult, stressful and sometimes dangerous job.