ST. LANDRY PARISH — SUNSET, La. — After years of operating without a dedicated funding source, the Sunset Volunteer Fire Department is preparing for new investments in equipment and facilities following voter approval of a property tax millage that firefighters say is critical to keeping the department operational.
Firefighters spent part of Monday afternoon working on a tanker truck — one of the vehicles the department depends on to respond to emergencies across the Sunset area. Department leaders say the steady costs of maintaining an aging fleet and replacing protective gear have increasingly outpaced what the station can cover through donations and patchwork support.
Volunteer firefighter Clyde Olivier said the millage is not about “extras,” but about keeping up with the basics of modern firefighting.
“A firefighter walking into a house carrying a hose has about $16,000 to $19,000 worth of equipment on,” Olivier said. “Ten years ago that was about $8,000. Things are getting expensive, which is why we have to have the millage. We’ve got no choice.”
Olivier said the department has been discussing a millage for nearly a decade, but asking residents to approve a new tax was not an easy decision.
“This millage is way overdue. We’ve been looking at it really seriously and hard for almost 10 years now,” Olivier said. “It’s hard to ask people for more taxes, which is why it’s been delayed so long. We tried every avenue we could grants and loans and all this stuff but the bottom line, we’re going to have to start paying our own way.”
The millage is expected to generate about $350,000 per year, money Olivier said will be used to support core department needs from equipment and gear to fleet maintenance and long-term improvements.
One of the largest priorities officials point to is a new fire station. The current building has served the department for decades, but firefighters say they have outgrown the space and face limitations that make expansion difficult.
Olivier said without the new revenue, the department could find itself struggling to keep services in Sunset.
“The fire department without the millage, we would be in trouble in a couple of years,” he said. “We don’t have the room to build right now. Like I said, we have to build a new fire station. That’s kind of number one on our list.”Olivier said the next step is identifying property for a future station site while the department continues planning for equipment upgrades.
For volunteer firefighters, the goal is to arrive quickly enough to prevent a small fire from becoming a total loss.
“Our effort is to get there before the damage gets too great,” Olivier said. “If we can get there quick and save it to a room and contents, we can help people out. Getting there and seeing folks lose everything they own — it gets heartbreaking sometimes. Our effort is to keep this local where we can get there quick and save people’s homes.”
Olivier’s path to the department began after retirement, he said, when Sunset Mayor Charles James encouraged him to get involved.
“I used to do industrial firefighting with Exxon Mobil,” Olivier said. “After I retired, I’d been knowing the mayor, Charles, for a while and he asked me, ‘Hey man, if you’re not busy, we could use some help in the fire department.’ So I came over here, started messing with some administrative stuff and then ended up being a volunteer firefighter.”Now, Olivier said, the role is both service and something he once admired from the curb during holiday parades.
“Our Chief Kevin talked me into doing this and it’s kind of a childhood dream,” he said. “The six-year-old kid that saw the fire truck at the Christmas parade — now I get to drive one. So it’s kind of a blast.”
With the millage approved, department leaders say the focus shifts to putting the new funding stream to work — maintaining the fleet, upgrading gear and planning the next generation of infrastructure they believe will help protect Sunset for years to come.
"I really would like to thank the community for the support they've given us. It's been very responsive. We know additional taxes aren't fun, but once the community realized what we needed, why we needed it, and how it compares to other agencies, the great majority of this community supported us. We really want to thank the community for that," Olivier said.
