They’ve Helped So Many, Now They Need You

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One small town in Minnesota is in need of support to keep their volunteer based fire department up and running.

The Perley Fire Department is in need of donations and volunteers.

KVRR’s Brittany Ford has the story.

The Perley Fire Department needs 10–12 volunteers to be an active department.

Their current members are getting older and will soon need to retire.

Fire Chief Kasey Hegreberg says gaining volunteers is one thing, but that also means more money.

“If you get three or four people that’s you know 200 to 25–hundred bucks to suit them and another 388 for a pager it adds up. It doesn’t take long to drain your accounts.”

Those numbers don’t include the cost of training.

Fire volunteers say the funds will help them to do their job better, and faster.

“With the proper gear, trucks, equipment, response time it helps it all flow really well, and work out whenever there is an incident for us to go to,” says Asst. Fire Chief Cody Hegrebreg.

The department has held a few fundraisers in an effort to raise more money, but each time, they have had a poor turnout.

One Perley resident shared that in the 50 years she’s lived here, this is the lowest number of volunteers the fire department has ever seen.

“Since my husband was on the fire department, he was chief for many years, and it’s just slowly going down as far as the amount of people. On the fire department and the rescue squad, they need help,” said Ohren.

The town currently relies on bordering towns like Ada, Shelly, and Felton to help with response calls.

The department says anyone interested in joining can come to their meeting at the Perley Fire Department which is held every second Thursday of the month.

Reporting in Perley, Brittany Ford KVRR News.

The department is hosting a pancake and sausage feed fundraiser September 20th 7am to 1:30pm at the Perley Lee Fire Hall.