Orange Beach FD considers volunteer force for Ono Island

ONO ISLAND, Ala. (WALA) - A novel idea may bring full-time firefighters to Ono Island.

The move would essentially create an unpaid internship with a free place to live. It sounds like a good deal, but does the island need it?

FIRE DANGER

Ono Island is an idyllic place, a private, gated resort community. But the conditions that make it so nice, the strong gulf breezes, the brushy beach foliage, can also be hazardous.

A house fire in 2010 showed just how volatile it can get, when flames shot up sixty feet into the air. No one was hurt, but three homes were caught up in the blaze.

"It really affects the neighbors when a fire starts. It's tough to deal with because normally it's not just one, but maybe a couple," resident Bill Calender told us.

Calender used to be a volunteer firefighter on the island, but he had to give it up as he got older.

"I learned real quick,” Calender said. “Being a fireman is a young man's job it's not an old man's job, and it would absolutely wear me out."

ISLAND GROWS; VOLUNTEERS CAN’T KEEP UP

As the island has grown, the volunteers' job has grown more difficult and the island's ISO fire rating is in danger of going up, which would increase homeowners insurance for everyone living on the island.

Peter Strizinger with the property owners association told us, "Our main problem with our ISO rating is our volunteer firefighters. They are great, great firefighters but we have lost a lot of them due to age or moving off the island."

Not being able to afford full-time firefighters, Stritzinger, and the property owners association, came up with a novel approach: building a facility to house unpaid but fully-trained interns. The young firefighters would likely get some educational credit on top of the experience.

"There was hardly anywhere to go. We had to get some firefighters and this was a good way to go," Stritzinger said.

NOT EVERYONE HAPPY WITH IDEA

The building to house the firefighters would cost about $700,000 to build. Grants and low-interest loans are being looked at to pay for it.

Gail Engle, who lives next door to where the new firehouse would be, isn't happy. She's concerned it would lower her property value and cost homeowners too much.

"We feel that this could be accomplished with a much smaller building and probably with a lot less people," she said.

The Ono island firehouse will be on the agenda at a zoning meeting Thursday night in Robertsdale. The meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the Baldwin County Central Annex.