After a 5-0 vote Nov. 16 by the Carroll County Board of Supervisors, Carroll County now has a list of qualifiers and disqualifers to serve on a county fire department or rescue squad.

Carroll County Administrator Gary Larrowe said the Carroll Emergency Services Board (ESB) has been working on the qualifiers and disqualifers for some time. The list was finalized at the ESB’s Nov. 12 meeting for approval by supervisors, he said.

“These are basic ideas and concepts so that there is an upgrade of services in Carroll County in general,” Larrowe said. “And that is what we would all hope, that the most qualified individuals would be responding to fire and rescue calls and other emergency calls.”

After a review of qualifiers and disqualifers, the Carroll County Board of Supervisors approved the lists by a 5-0 vote. Pine Creek District Supervisor Wes Hurst abstained from the vote.

Qualifiers for eligibility to volunteer with a Carroll County fire department or rescue squad are as follows:

— Live within the boundaries of Carroll County or within coverage area, or must live within five air miles of the station to be served from.

— If member belongs to both a fire department and a rescue squad, member is only eligible to serve as an officer in one agency.

— Must be 18 years of age for volunteer fire and rescue.

— Must be 12 years of age for EMT and 16 years of age for a Fire Cadet program.

— Must be 21 years or over to hold an EVOC card to drive emergency vehicles.

— Must have a criminal background check.

— Must admit to drug screening upon application and future periodic random drug screenings or drug screenings for cause.

Items that will disqualify a member from volunteer service are as follows:

— A conviction of Driving Under the Influence in the past five years, or more than one conviction of DUI in the applicant’s lifetime.

— Any felony conviction.

— The use of illegal drugs during the last 12 months.

— Illegal sale of drugs or narcotics.

— Documented untruthfulness on applicant’s application, or in response to requests made by the ESB or County Administration.

— Conviction of any domestic violence.

— Upon any police investigation until the outcome.

Qualifiers to hold an office for Fire are as follows:

— Fire Chief must be certified as Firefighter II, if they are available and willing to serve.

— Assistant Fire Chief must be certified as Firefighter II, if they are available and willing to serve.

— All line officers must hold a minimum of Firefighter I certification.

— Must live within five air miles of Carroll County.

— Must live within your coverage area.

— In the event that a fire department has no members certified as Firefighter II, Firefighter I is required.

Qualifier to hold an office for Rescue are as follows:

— All captains must be Advanced Life Support certified, if they are available and willing to serve.

— All line officers must hold a minimum certification of EMT.

— Must live within five miles of Carroll County.

— Must live within your coverage area.

— In the event that a Squad does not have an ALS provider an EMT is required.

“We are trying to make sure the most highly qualified individuals hold office,” Larrowe said.

Pipers Gap Supervisor Dr. Tom Littrell asked about the boundaries listed in the qualifiers and disqualifers. Larrowe noted there are several instances in Carroll of volunteers that live outside the county.

“We have people in Cana with a North Carolina driver’s license who are on the rescue squad in Cana. We have individuals in Floyd County in the Hillsville Volunteer Fire Department because they are operating out of Dugspur. We have several of those instances. We just want to make sure we allow those people to serve that are willing.” Larrowe said. “We are plotting those numbers since we have the GIS abilities now to plot where these individuals live outside of the county. Once those are plotted, then we would know the outermost parameters to grandfather those into the system.”