Fire department raffles go off track

Benjamin Franklin is regarded as the founder of the United States Fire Service. On Dec 7, 1736, Franklin co-founded the Union Fire Company, also known as the “Bucket Brigade.” It was the first formally organized all-volunteer fire company in the colonies and was shaped after Boston’s Mutual Fire Societies.

The difference between the fire societies of Boston and Franklin’s Union Fire Company was that the former protected its members only while the latter the entire community. Of course, there needed to be a way to finance fire equipment such as fire engines, ladders and other equipment were financed by fines paid by members for absence at monthly meetings. Thus began the long and hallowed tradition of volunteer firefighters doing fund raisers to offset taxes.

In the greater Chippewa Valley, fire departments or firefighters’ associations have held pancake breakfasts, chicken dinners, raffles, dances, fairs and $100-a-plate evening dinners where you could eat and drink as much as you wished.

People are also reading…

Other departments have held car washes, did pizza deliveries, held golf tournaments, sponsored tractor pulls and mud bogs. Not to be forgotten were years when local fire departments created a calendar that was sponsored by local businesses. Meat raffles are often big events. If you wish just let your mind wander, if you can think of it your local fire department can too.

Lately it appears that the going thing is to raffle off firearms. This has been part of the tradition. Often a deer hunting rifle, a shot gun or a .22-caliber rifle were auctioned off. Recently the trend moved to raffling off “modern sporting rifles.” Indeed, local departments are raffling off grand prizes that include a .50-caliber sniper rifle. That rifle can shoot out to 2,000 yards. I know a lot of deer hunters that have shot deer at 2,000 yards.

My next remarks are not going to win me any friends, nor I doubt they will influence any people, but I personally think raffling off “modern sporting rifles” or a .50-caliber sniper rifles is simply nuts. Everyone in the United States knows that we have a horrible gun problem. In Wisconsin, we rank 36th with the number of deaths per 100,000 total population at 12.2.

Nationally the 45,222 total gun deaths in 2020 were by far the most on record, representing a 14% increase from the year before, a 25% increase from five years earlier and a 43% increase from a decade prior. (Pew Research Center)

Now before people jump on their high horse and inform me that I am anti-gun, you would be right up to a point. I am all for traditional hunting weapons. I own hunting weapons. Where I draw the line is on the “modern sporting rifles, shotguns and handguns.” When the average citizen can outgun local law enforcement, we have a huge problem.

The goal of the fire service has been to save lives and protect property. To that end millions of dollars are devoted each year to training, education, fire suppression and prevention of fires. So, to raffle off a weapons platform such as an AR-15 that endangers the lives of the people we protect seems to be oxymoronic to say the very least.

Chippewa County Fire Departments are in the process of organizing “rescue task forces.”

A rescue task force is a group of firefighters with Kevlar helmets, body armor escorted by a police officer carrying an AR-15-type weapon, into a warm or hot zone to retrieve wounded people during a mass causality shooting event.

My father did that during WWII; he was a combat medic/surgical technician. My father was drafted, trained and expected to carry out his duties under fire. I think we are asking quite a bit of our local fire departments. Recruiting these days is hard enough — now comes being trained as a stretcher bearer team?

I will be the first to acknowledge that such raffles can be very profitable. But therein lies the rub. Fire departments and associations raise money to fund things that taxpayers may not wish to. Taxpayers become used to the fire department raising funds so taxes will not be raised.

Where and when does it all stop? Is raffling “modern sporting rifles” and AR-15s the answer? Again I think not.

Lee Douglas, Fire Chief at Chippewa Falls Fire and Emergency Services was first hired by the department in 1990. Now, more than 32 years later, he’s getting ready to retire.

The Ventura County Fire Department used helicopters to rescue people who were stranded by floodwaters on an island in the Ventura River. A fire department spokesperson said at least one person had to stay on the island overnight before the rescue could be attempted Tuesday. No injuries were reported. The Ventura River reached its highest level on record at more than 25 feet (8 meters) on Monday. The water level quickly dropped to minor flood stage levels overnight. The death toll from the storms that began last week California climbed from 12 to 14 on Monday, after two people were killed by falling trees, state officials said.

Catch the latest in Opinion

Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!