I received the information below on the activities of the Loudon County Fire Rescue and their training and wanted to share. LCFR is an organization staffed by well trained, highly qualified individuals. They are your neighbors and friends who respond to hundreds of incidences every year. None receive any compensation for their work or time. In fact, they spend their own money on their activities. Unlike Sefton, they're not in it for the money, they just do it because of their love for our community and a desire to help others. I would hate to think where we would be without them.  

Contrary to what some might think, the LCFR is about way more than just putting out fires, a lot more. Below are links to incident reports and training levels. Just take a look at what all they do. It's unbelievable.

To Mr. Sefton, before you criticize the men and women who are doing the work, maybe you should know facts.

To the men and women of the LCFR, just know the vast majority of Loudon County residents appreciate your service. 

LCFR Incident Report 2019
LCFR Incident Report 2020
LCFR Incident Report 2021
LCFR Training Levels

Here is some additional information.

The minimum requirement to make entry into a house fire (IDLH atmosphere [Immediately Dangerous to Life and Heath]) is a 64-hour Recruit class.

The minimum requirement that most full-time paid departments require is Firefighter 2 Certification.

As you can see, most of the firefighters in our department are Firefighter 2 and beyond and the ones that are not are currently trying to achieve those certifications.  It takes a lot of hours to achieve these certifications, and LCFR hosts and conducts a 266-hour Tennessee State Fire Academy Approved Recruit Academy bi-annually to train our new members and offer it to surrounding counties to reduce the cost to these departments.

We have 5 Academy Credited Instructors (ACI) which allows us to teach the 266-hour Recruit Academy class instead of the new members having to go to the State Fire Academy for 10 weeks in which they would have to take off from their full-time job to attend the 10 weeks Academy class.  Our classes are scheduled where we teach and train in the evenings and on weekends to try and accommodate everyone’s work schedule.  The dedication that the members of Loudon County Fire / Rescue devote to the department and to the county after working their full-time jobs and time away from their families is a great deal that most in the public do not realize.  But we choose to do what we do because we love what we do, and we love serving our county.

The certifications that are listed are just some of the major certifications, and most members have many additional hours of training that is not shown.  Training never ends for a firefighter, so, for volunteers, they must train in the evenings and on weekends when they are not working their full-time job.

Every firefighter in the state of Tennessee whether paid or volunteer is required to obtain 240 hours of training annually.  In addition to the countless hours spent responding to emergency calls and training, most if not all volunteers spend their own money responding either to a station or straight to the scene of an emergency in their personally owned vehicle (POV).