Kearney Volunteer Fire Department

The Kearney Volunteer Fire Department is a rather unique organization in the fact that it is comprised of three different and separate entities that operate together for the benefit of the citizens in our fire district.

Entity #1: City of Kearney, Fire Department:
The City of Kearney employees 11 full time Fire Engineers (driver/operators), a Fire Administrator, a Fire Inspector, an Office Manager, a part time Secretary and 11 part time Firefighter/Operators.
The Fire Administrator is Jason Whalen, and he is the immediate supervisor for all paid staff. The Fire Administrator also assists the Fire Chief by addressing all of the day to day activities that are encountered in a fire department and serves as a liaison between the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department, the fire department employees and the City of Kearney.
The Office Manager is Gisel Theis, and she performs most of the administrative functions that are required in any organization such as paying bills, compiling budget information, providing required reports and a myriad of other task that make a large operation run smoothly.
The Fire Inspector conducts plan reviews, final occupancy inspections, and attends development review team meetings to assist in ensuring that the future developments in the City of Kearney safe and up to Fire Code standards. He conducts pre-fire plan visits to commercial properties which help the fire department plan for emergencies. He also conducts fire prevention visits and fire extinguisher training.
The part time Secretary is Cindy Kendrick and she conducts many of non-emergency interactions with the public such as issuing burn permits, answering the telephone and scheduling tours.
The Fire Engineers work two 24 hour shifts per week and are responsible for their assigned station as well as apparatus. The Fire Engineers rotate between Fire Station #1, #2 and #3 working Sunday through Friday. In addition to responding to emergency calls, each day the Fire Engineers perform daily apparatus inspections, perform weekly inspections and maintenance on emergency apparatus, thoroughly clean a portion of the station as well as ensuring the entire station remains presentable. The Fire Engineers also perform aerial maintenance, annual pump testing, test all fire hose smaller than 5” (over 40,000 feet of it!), some are trained and certified to perform Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) annual flow testing and repairs, perform or schedule equipment and apparatus repairs as needed, as well as helping train their volunteer counterparts on how to operate fire apparatus to department standards.
The part time Firefighter/Operators are volunteer members that are paid to cover the three fire stations on Saturday’s as well as cover shifts for Fire Engineers as needed.
In the simplest sense, the paid staff of the Kearney Fire Department supports the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department by taking care of the maintenance, cleaning and day to day task found within a fire department so the Volunteer members can concentrate of emergency response and training.
The response area for the City of Kearney, Fire Department is within the city limits of Kearney.

Entity #2: Suburban Fire Protection District #1 of Buffalo and Kearney Counties:
The Suburban Fire Protection District #1 provides fire protection for an area of 272 square miles, excluding the City of Kearney.
The Suburban Fire Protection District #1 has no paid employees but contracts with the City of Kearney, Fire Department for maintenance of their apparatus.
The Suburban Fire Protection District #1 has an unmanned fire station in the Village of Riverdale.

Entity #3: Kearney Volunteer Fire Department
The Kearney Volunteer Fire Department is its own private corporation which consists of the membership of the KVFD and Reserve Company members who retired from active firefighting but still assist as needed. The membership of the KVFD elects the Corporation Board Members as well as the Fire Chief, two Assistant Chiefs, five Captains, Training Officer and six Lieutenants.
All KVFD members are issued bunker gear, SCBA mask and wild land gear and they are able to carry that gear with them.
The KVFD membership provides the majority of the man hours required to operate a fire department during emergency responses and special events, all on a purely volunteer basis.
How We Operate
The City of Kearney, Fire Department owns some of the emergency apparatus, the Suburban Fire Protection District #1 owns some of the emergency apparatus and there are a few pieces of equipment such as Rescue 1 (the rescue truck) which is owned and maintained jointly due to the fact that it operates within both response areas. Both the City of Kearney, Fire Department and Suburban Fire Protection District #1 provide operational funding collected from the citizens within their district.

Aside from the apparatus staged in the Riverdale Fire Station, Suburban Fire Protection District #1 apparatus are staged right alongside City of Kearney apparatus in the city stations.

There is a very effective mutual aid agreement and general understanding between the City of Kearney, Fire Department and Suburban Fire Protection District #1 which enables the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department to utilize the apparatus required to mitigate the incident, regardless of where the call is physically located and who owns the apparatus.
For incidents within City limits the Fire Engineers will respond from the station with the appropriate apparatus. The KVFD membership will respond to the scene with their gear and fight the fire or perform the rescue as needed.
For incidents outside of City limits the Fire Engineers will start the appropriate apparatus, the KVFD membership will respond to the stations and take the apparatus to the call. The Fire Engineers and some of the KVFD membership remain at the stations to help cover the City of Kearney and respond to the next call that may occur while the first one is being mitigated.