Vicksburg Fire Chief Charles Atkins accepted the Fireman of the Year award on behalf of Captain William Wienke Monday from the Exchange Club of Vicksburg.

October is Fire Safety Month and the Exchange Club chose to honor a fireman of Atkins choice. Unfortunately, Wienke could not attend Monday’s meeting, so Atkins stepped in for him.

Atkins called Wienke a good asset to the department.

“Capt. Wienke is an admirable person, I would say, as far as not complaining just taking the bull by the horns and does the job real well,” Atkins said.

Wienke does a dual job by being a firefighter and a paramedic. His responsibilities include scheduling medic transfers, which Atkins said makes him stay up most of the night, and every so often he also rides on the truck to be a captain over a squad.

“He does a dual job in keeping EMS and the fire service at its very best on his shift,” Atkins said.

Atkins apologized to the members of the club for all the arguments that have been publicized recently about overtime in the fire department.

“The Vicksburg Fire Department is still functioning very well even though we are down 16 people,” Atkins said.

Entry level exams will be given at the end of the month to help fill those slots.

Atkins commended the firemen on all of their overtime work and for taking time away from their families to serve the community.

He spent time explaining the role of emergency medical services or EMS in the department for the county and the city mentioning the department helps in a number of medical emergencies from heart attacks to cuts. A third of the calls they get are for fires while the rest are for EMS. The department uses four ambulances.

“We have a dedicated group of young men and women who work for us,” Atkins said. “I trust in them as they do the job that they do out in the public. I would want to do anything that would make their lives as safe as it can be as we do a dangerous job.”

There are seven stations in the department, and Atkins said he was looking at moving a station into the less protected eastside of Vicksburg with the possibility of combining two stations.

“That would be a great, big start for us as we move forward into the future,” Atkins said.

Station 7 is the oldest station and Atkins said it still has a heavy fire load. He doesn’t want this station to change because of the many areas and people it serves.

“It’s my thinking to keep that station open and running. It serves us with EMS, it serves our casinos down south, it serves from Warrenton Road to 61 South, back through to Confederate Avenue and then back around up into Belmont,” Atkins said.

“We have that area and Halls Ferry Road to protect.”

The department stays busy by lending a hand to agencies in the community and in Tallulah, La. at the airport. Keeping their training and certifications up to date also takes time as well as doing maintenance on the trucks.

“Our guys are trained in four maybe three different levels and they have to maintain their certification and it takes money and time to do so,” Atkins said.

Another program the department is taking on is an educational safety program for young and old, especially during October. They try to visit schools and convalescent homes.

Exchange Club president Randy Gay said they haven’t recognized a firefighter every year, but he said they should have been doing it all along. This year is no different than previous years, he said, as to why they chose to start giving out the honor again.

“We probably should have been doing it every year,” Gay said. “I think the women in the group decided it would be a good thing to do this year. We’ve been rebuilding the club.”

Recently the club has made an effort to reach out to more people because of dwindling numbers, Gay said.

The club gave Atkins about 25 or 30 smoke detectors for the department to give out to families with children or elderly households at their discretion.