Union County, NC
Type Department: Volunteer
Structure: Conventional Organizational Chart
ISO: 5/9E
Number of Stations: 1
Number of Apparatus: 9:
Pumpers: 4 Aerials: 0
Specialty: Rescue, Brush Trucks, Boat and UTV
Do you provide EMS? Yes — EMT/First Responder
Annual Budget: $384,000
Area Covered Square miles: 28
Population: +/- 4,500
Chief: Chief Graham D. McManus
Chief Officers:
Assistant Chief Brandon Liles, Assistant Chief Derrick Carnes
Other Officers:
Captain Dedrick Brown, Captain Matt Morse
Number of Members: 34 (Paid: 2 Volunteer: 32)
Address: 8323 Lancaster Hwy Waxhaw, NC 28173
Phone: 704-843-2611
Community Outreach: We help at Cane Creek Park for there children’s summer camp. Updating and sending out info through social media platforms to keep the community up to date. Trunk or Treat for the kids, we discuss fire safety with all age groups at this event. With our department being all volunteer Facebook has been a great outreach for our department.
Top Two concerns in your community: Rapid growth in our county with lack of infrastructure water and sewer. Recruitment of volunteers and hiring part time staff members. Community awareness for the rapid growth.
What are you doing for fundraising? None, we have citizens make various donations and use those funds to purchase supplies for our blue address sign program. We have a retired member that makes all our blue reflective signs for us.
What upgrades will you make in your department this year? Sprinkler system and working on adding bedrooms and offices as we move toward a combination department.
What special hazards or unique businesses in your community? Cane Creek Park which covers 1000 acres 350 of that being a lake. They have several triathlons and events we provide first responder coverage for. We have a large furniture store beside our station, this is our largest hazard in our district.
What problems in your department that you would like feedback from others? Best practices for recruitment for qualified personnel to add to our part time staff.
List anything else you are proud of and would like the readers to know about, are you doing anything special in Recruitment, Retention or anything unique other departments could benefit from:
For the past five years we have had a very good response from our stipend program for our pay per call incentive. This has been a huge benefit for participation on calls and training. In the Spring of 2022 with the help of Union County Management team, Union County Parks and Recreation, and Union County Fire Marshal’s office we were able to install a dry hydrant at Cane Creek Park. Our fire district has no fire hydrants, so we rely on tankers and static water sources. We were able to certify 3 lakes in our district which helped us lower from an ISO 9 to a 5/9E this in turn was a huge savings to our citizens and something for all our members to be proud of.
