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Paradise to lead firefighter association

WISE COUNTY



NOW PRESIDING — Boyd Fire Chief Jason Paradise was recently elected president of the Wise County Firefighter Association. RICHARD GREENE/WCMESSENGER

NOW PRESIDING — Boyd Fire Chief Jason Paradise was recently elected president of the Wise County Firefighter Association. RICHARD GREENE/WCMESSENGER

Wise County fire departments are all seeing a drastic increase in call volumes as the county continues to grow.

The fire departments are also working with less volunteers and available funds stretched thin after some fundraisers were canceled during 2020 and 2021 by COVID-19.

“What a lot of departments are dealing with is call volume is outpacing the revenue streams,” said Boyd Fire Chief Jason Paradise. “There’s less income and more calls.”

Paradise, who also heads the Wise County Emergency District No. 1 along with the Boyd Fire Department, will be leading the effort to help local fire departments meet their needs as the new president of the Wise County Firefighters Association. Paradise was elected to the post recently, replacing recently retired Rhome Fire Chief Darrell Fitch. The organization also picked a new vice president, Newark Fire Chief Jerry Taylor. Former Decatur Fire Chief Nate Mara was the vice president before accepting the Decatur city manager post.

As one of three full-time chiefs in the county along with Decatur’s Deroy Bennett and Bridgeport’s Travis Nokes, Paradise said he felt he had the time to give the association.

“Being a career firefighter as well as having a Monday through Friday job that allows me to be available, I will be able to help with what the association needs,” Paradise said. “I’ll have more time for meetings with county officials.”

Funding and the need for more volunteers is a recurring theme with many local volunteer departments. The two issues are not unique to Wise County.

Nearly 70 percent of firefighters in the United States are volunteers, according to the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). The total number of volunteers has gone up and down in the past 40 years. In 1984 there was an estimated 884,600 volunteer firefighters in the country. In 2017, there were 682,000. The most recent report from the agency in 2018 found there were 740,000. America’s population has grown from 281 million in 1984 to 332 million today.

Wise County is following that trend with its explosive growth, going from 59,083 in 2010 to an estimated 69,740 by the latest North Central Texas Council of Governments numbers. With more people, there’s more calls.

“As the ESD chief, I present to the commission a 10-year growth report. Our call volume is up 68 percent,” Paradise said. “Our revenue stream is up 44 percent.”

According to the Wise County Auditor’s Office, the county pays the 17 departments $4,245 per month for providing service to unincorporated areas. That is a total of $865,980 per year. Another $75,000 is divided as determined by fire chiefs.

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