Letter to the editor: Support chief

There was no public discussion before that decision, no input sought from the volunteers who are Mosier Fire. The action taken is completely contrary to the highly qualified recommendations made by professionals in modern Fire/EMS to our board.

Departments everywhere (including Hood River and Mid-Columbia) are struggling to attract volunteers. But Chief Appleton inspired a robust volunteer team and advanced their training beyond anything Mosier has ever seen.

The decision by some board members to reduce the department to a part-time chief flies in face of reality. How would a part time chief be available to meet at odd times to train volunteers who have families and jobs to work around? We are an all-volunteer department.

On at least three occasions, Chief Appleton was able to knock down fires by himself that would have turned into life and property threatening disasters within minutes had he not responded immediately.

He has also been responsible for life saving medical interventions because he was a full time chief and on duty.

The fire board should publicly justify their actions, having failed to do so prior to such an arbitrary and harmful decision.

It should also be known that with staff reductions at Hood River we have already experienced delayed responses and, in fact, have had responses from Skyline Hospital in White Salmon as a result.

At a time when we can depend less on outside resources Mosier Fire has commendable response times. Ask yourself the most relevant question of all, if the most important person in your world collapses in front of you, do you want to look at the clock and hope that Hood River can respond in 10 minutes at best, or at all, and Skyline even longer? The clock is ticking.

Having made the statements above, I want to assure everyone that Mosier volunteers have taken a vote of confidence in Chief Appleton and have committed to continued service to our community.

Now is the time for the community to reaffirm its support for the volunteers to have what enables them to best serve our citizens. Letters to the Fire Board, City Council, and Mosier Fire of personal testimony are greatly appreciated.

Ron Carroll

Mosier