This year's edition will be held Friday through Sunday. Waldkirch placed a half-page advertisement in a community newspaper recently seeking recruits, and for the first time he made a recruiting trip to a high school for volunteers. The Cedarburg Fire Department launched an Explorer Scout program for the first time as a feeder program for its 78-member department. The Explorer program has 11 teenage members. Plumer, of the state firefighters group, said often lost in the debate over funding is the financial benefit of having a well-equipped fire department.
Insurance companies look at fire departments' equipment, response times, water availability.
I know of businesses that have saved hundreds of dollars because their fire department's insurance rating improved. And of greatest importance, he said, communities can probably count on better protection, reducing the loss of life and property. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 28, 2001. All rights reserved. Produced by Journal Interactive .