Riverbend Vol. Fire Department installs new officers

Riverbend Volunteer Fire Department is heading into 2009 with a new fire chief and deputy fire chief.

Mark Willis, 45, a 19-year veteran with the department, has been elected fire chief, and Bobby Adkins was elected deputy fire chief.

“I’ve passed up being fire chief before, and I’ve been the assistant for 10 years, so I decided to take it on and give it a try,” Willis said Wednesday. He works as a plumber with Dameron Plumbing.

Riverbend VFD serves about 400 residents in the Ferry Road and Old Mayfield Road area and covers about three miles of the Danville Bypass beyond the city limits.

The department is appropriately named “Riverbend” because it is located in the bend of the Dan River with the river one mile away in three different directions.

Willis has goals for the department that responds to approximately 100 calls per year.

“One of my goals is the process of recruitment and retention,” Willis said. “It’s hard in every organization to find volunteers.”

The Riverbend VFD has about 30 members with eight of them trained as emergency medical technicians and 15 as fire fighters.

“About half of the members are actually city residents,” Willis said. “Some have a past history of being fire fighters and just want to be a member of a volunteer fire department.”

“Another thing that hurts us,” Adkins said, “is that the population in the community is older, and it’s hard to recruit younger members.”

He said that out of the 100 responses per year, 75 to 80 percent of those are medical emergency calls and half of their fire calls are mutual aid with the Pelham fire department for the area in North Carolina north of the Pelham Welcome Center.

Another goal of Willis’ is neighborhood awareness because, even though the community they serve is small, he said that many people take the service the department provides for granted.

Adkins said, “There are people who have lived here for 20 years and don’t know that the city won’t come for a fire.”

Adkins, 27, has been involved with the fire department all his life. His family gave the land to build the fire station in 1988 when Danville annexed the Westover area, and the Westover fire department moved to the Riverbend area.

“I rode on the bulldozer when they were grading the lot, and I used to climb on the walls when they were building the station,” Adkins said. “I know a good chunk about the department.”

Willis and Adkins are aware of the problems facing their small department.

“Our community is limited, and that makes it hard for us,” Adkins said. “We are locked in by the river, the North Carolina state line and the city.”

Then, as in every community organization, raising money is always a challenge.

“Pittsylvania County allots a certain amount every year,” Adkins said, “but we are facing cuts for the 2009-10 year. Plus, when the economy is bad, it’s harder to get donations.”

To fill the coffers, a support group organizes fundraisers. The department has three Brunswick stews every year, and a pancake supper, spaghetti supper and a lawnmower raffle are all in the works for this year.

Another difficulty is having people available during the day for emergency calls, which some weeks can be two or three.

Since the Riverbend VFD doesn’t transport to the hospital, the Danville Life Saving Crew covers those calls.

“For fires, two departments are automatically punched out, so Ringgold, Bachelor’s Hall and Pelham are called, and in some instances, the city is called,” Adkins explained.

It’s better than the old days, though, when the Westover department covered the area and it could take quite a while for a response to arrive, especially when traffic was backed up over the Robertson Bridge.

“I was six years old when our tractor caught on fire, and it took them 25 minutes for them to get here from Westover,” Adkins said.

The fire department is more than just a community organization. It’s more like a family, as relatively new member, Jason Spencer, testifies.

“I joined last April and brought my family,” he said. “They took a liking to my kids, and my kids call some of them ‘uncle.’”

“It’s a nice, small community close to the city,” Willis said. “It’s convenient, and we enjoy living here.”

The group meets every Tuesday to check the trucks, maintain the buildings and train. The department owns a 1985 GMC brush truck, a 1989 GMC tanker and 2001 KME mini-pumper, which also serves as the EMS vehicle.

“Participation has been good since I became chief,” Willis said. “Being chief takes a lot of time. Of course, I’m new to the position, and we are making some changes. My wife is 100 percent behind me. She’s a member of the support group. Of course, she’s put up with this for a long time.”