FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2023
At the April 2023 monthly board meeting for the Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc. on April 19, 2023, it was voted on to discontinue non-contractual services to the unincorporated areas of Lafayette Parish. These services will include but are not limited to; EMS calls, including cardiac arrest, heart problems, chest pain, breathing difficulty, drowning, choking, unconsciousness/ fainting, and stroke.
Currently, total calls to the unincorporated area account for approx. 30% of the Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc.’s call volume and funds from LCG only account for 3.15% of the department’s operating cost, leaving the residents of the City of Youngsville to pay the rest. In February of this year, a resolution was sent from the City of Youngsville City Council to the Lafayette Parish Council outlining this with little to no response from the council. For these reasons, it was voted on by the Board of Directors at the monthly board meeting for April to notify the residents of the unincorporated areas that as of 11:59 pm on the 31st of May 2023, the Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department will no longer provide non-contractual services to these areas.
At this time, the Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc. still intends to meet the current contractual obligation to respond to structural fires within the unincorporated area. The current contract between LCG and the Youngsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc. expires in November 2023 and communication was sent to Lafayette Parish Councilman Josh Carlson that the cost to provide this service will increase with a new contract and that we will not provide the same service (30% of our current call volume) to those outside of our city limits for the current allocation which has remained stagnant for years.
