PMVFR was established April 1986 in the Pond Mountain district of Creston, North Carolina. After realizing that a dedicated volunteer fire protection organization was necessary, the citizens of the Pond Mountain area decided they needed a closer, more up to date and dedicated fire protection than was being offered by neighboring communities. Community meetings were held, monies raised and land was donated and the process of building Fire Station #1 was started.
PMVFR is responsible for approximately 42 square miles of rugged mountainous and agricultural terrain. Steady rate population is 792 people and seasonal population adds and additional 495 people. Population density is 19 people per square mile. Our run area also includes two major wilderness areas. Cherokee National Forest, which we are partially responsible for, and all of Pond Mountain State Wildlife Refuge. A total of over 3,000 rugged wilderness acres.
PMVFR has mutual aid agreements with the Lansing Fire Department and the Creston Fire Department, both based in Ashe County, NC. We also mutual aid upon request with Mount Rogers Volunteer Fire in Grayson County, Virginia, and Second District Volunteer Fire in Johnson County, TN
The main road from Northeast Tennessee and Mountain City, TN, which connects to the center of Ashe County, NC, runs through our district. There is a large and constant amount of personal vehicle traffic along this road with large commercial transport trucks hauling everything from agricultural products, timber, gravel/construction material and hazardous products.
To see a breakdown of the apparatus that we run click here.
In September 2010, a fire station annex, station #2 was built to better serve citizens in the southern portion of our run area in order to cut down on unacceptable response times.
In late 2014 our department assigned a task force to determine which was the best option to provide faster and more reliable fire protection in the northern part of our run area. This area is extremely rural and is comprised of rugged mountainous terrain with inadequate dirt/gravel roads. This area has mountain elevations as high as 5,000ft above sea level. Currently, it takes a minimum of 25 minutes for fire/emergency apparatus to arrive at our northern run area from our current station, due to terrain and road conditions.
Based on NFPA 1720, which states that rural zones with <500 people/sq. mi. need to have 6 staff assemble an attack in 14 minutes, 80% of the time, the task force determined the only way to meet this standard was to build a second substation within the affected area. We anticipate a major reduction in response times, 8-12 minutes, with this new station with an average response time improvement of at least 55% in most cases.
As of January 2021 we have thirty active volunteer fire fighters and seven Emergency Medical Technicians and several Emergency Medical Responders on our department roll.
PMVFR 