News

Millville Volunteer Fire Company Fire Chief Richie Walls is proud to nominate Assistant Chief Doug Scott for the 2014 Joshua M. Freeman Valor Award. Doug Scott joined the Millville Volunteer Fire Company in 1978 as a Junior Firefighter at the young age of 16. Even at that early age, Doug displayed a real passion for serving his community as a volunteer firefighter. Thirty-five years later at the age of 51, Doug Scott is still going strong in serving his community as a volunteer firefighter and is not showing any signs of slowing down. Doug is not someone who just puts in a little time here and there when an emergency in the community occurs. He has been an active member in the fire company since he joined in 1978, and he continues to be in the fore front of being a leader. Since Doug has been in the fire service with the Millville Volunteer Fire Company, he has been very active as a line officer for the membership. Doug has been the Fire Chief on several occasions, as well as an Assistant Chief, Fire Lieutenant, Rescue Captain, Rescue Lieutenant, Truck Captain, Ambulance Clerk, and Assistant Secretary. One initiative Doug took on in the 80's was to develop map books for each of our pieces of apparatus. Each map book contains directions to roads and developments. The developments showed an overlay of the streets and the house numbering system. Naturally, this resulted in a quicker response time to emergency situations. The map books also include pre-plans on businesses, as well as the Lord Baltimore Elementary School. Fire hydrant locations are marked, as well as utilities, entrances and any hazardous materials the responders could possibly encounter. Even though our pieces of apparatus today contain computers that display maps and a route to follow, as we all know, electronics sometimes fail. When that happens the hard copies of the map books come out to show the way. As a long time fire line officer, Doug Scott has always been a big proponent of training for the membership of the Millville Volunteer Fire Company. The more training the members have, the safer they will be in responding to an emergency. Training is also vital to learn new techniques for fire suppression, vehicle rescue, dealing with hazardous materials, as well as new technology to deal with the different emergencies the Millville Volunteer Fire Company may be faced with. During Doug's career as a volunteer firefighter, I cannot imagine the number of countless hours he has dedicated to the Millville Volunteer Fire Company and the community members that the fire company serves. He has had many nights with not much sleep and having to go to work at his regular job the next morning. There have been many family dinners interrupted by an alarm in which Doug has sacrificed to help someone in need. As a final note to Doug's passion as a volunteer firefighter, he generated such respect and enthusiasm within his family that his son Amos became a volunteer firefighter, and then went on to be a professional firefighter; his stepdaughter Carrie became a volunteer firefighter; and, his wife Tricia became a volunteer ambulance attendant. Millville Volunteer Fire Company EMS Chief John Watson is proud to nominate Michele Steffens for the 2014 Joshua M. Freeman EMT of The Year. Michele has been a major contributor to the EMS service of Millville Fire Co. Inc. over the past 2 years. She is in charge of our Ambulance Fund Drive and spends several hours a week making sure all money is deposited and all citizens get credit for their donations. This is a very important job for our service. Michele is also a Nationally Registered EMT and spends numerous hours standing by at the fire house to ensure we can get our second ambulance out on a call if needed. She has also assisted EMS Chief Watson with filing shifts when employees have needed off, or had to leave for an emergency at home. She is always just a phone call away and rarely turns us down when we need her. EMS Chief Watson is very grateful to have a volunteer as dedicated as she is. Without Volunteers like Michele our ambulance service would suffer.