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Date: 7/13/2022
WORTHINGTON – Ginger Scott and her husband, Rick, the town’s new volunteer fire chief, saved a man’s life in 2007. Driving through Chesterfield, they saw a commotion and stopped to help a man having a heart attack.
“Sixteen years later, that person is still alive, still runs his business, and to know that we were a part of that chain of survival … that really made an impression on me,” Rick Scott said.
Scott is still powered by a deep gratitude for the region’s emergency services and his involvement with them. That may explain why he took over the chief’s job at the age of 71. He is only now returning to the company after a long and difficult illness that forced him to give up his position in 2017. Scott, a father and grandfather, also plainly enjoys working as part of a group.
Scott said the Fire Department is “a close knit team of people [working] under sometimes pretty terrible circumstances, that brings you closer to those people,” Scott said. “But it also makes you appreciate … what the responders have to go through, in order to be able to function the way we’re expecting them to. It’s a very heavy load.”
The department budget isn’t a priority yet. Scott’s focus is on that heavy load of expectations, how to attract new members, keep them trained and maintain the pumpers and gear. As a long-term member returning to lead the town’s emergency services, he is aware that Worthington has leaned on its neighbors for help. Now he wants to revitalize the department and give back to the regional system.
“The sense of community pride is what we want to bring back to Worthington,” Scott said, “not only community but regional pride too…I, in particular, have realized that no small department can handle a large scale incident, or even a large local incident, by itself. No one does it alone. We rely tremendously on our neighbors for mutual aid.”
Scott emphasized the need for new faces, new members, and the need for training that promotes inclusion of those who aren’t burly and muscular. He spoke of a slower pace to trainings, with positive reinforcement, which is sometimes difficult to give, in the moment, because fire and medical events are unscripted.
Training, Scott said, will focus on the individual elements the go into EMT professionalism. Sessions won’t be too taxing, which may intimidate new recruits into quitting. Scott anticipates a manageable regimen that teaches the basics.
“It makes a little more sense to break it down,” Scott said. “When we put them all together at an accident scene or a fire, it won’t be quite so overwhelming.”
Will there be any warm bodies? The difficulty of attracting talent isn’t lost on the new chief. Scott hopes to draw recruits by getting out into the community and talking with residents. A greater public presence may dispel qualms about joining the department and any misconceptions about the commitment.
“I see my purpose is to attract some new talent, new bodies, new interest in the department,” Scott said, “expand our numbers a little bit and really to get back to basics. We are training (so that) mutual aid partners can expect a level of competence and reliability that hasn’t quite been there in the last few years.”
Scott still harkens back to Chesterfield and that man suffering a heart attack. After 10 years in the Fire Department as an emergency medical technician, and now as chief, he suggested that new recruits may also feel that sense of gratitude. He feels that gratitude every time he goes out on a call.
He said, “Every incident feels that way.”