Citrus County Fire Chief Larry Morabito said Friday that the Citrus Fire Service does not solicit for donations to the Fire Service or any of the county fire department facilities located around the county.

Morabito said he was responding to inquires he said he has gotten about solicitations for fundraising involving volunteer firefighter associations.

Those are civic and social associations and separate from county government and the Fire Service, he explained. “While they are associations made up of our great Citrus County volunteers, I felt I need to clear up any confusion,” he said.

“While the volunteers have been, and will continue to be, a most vital part of our fire system, their associations are not to be confused with county government,” he said. “So solicitations in a fundraiser by a company done in the name of a volunteer firefighters association, for example, for portrait photographs, is for that association and not the
county Fire Service, he said.

“The resident’s taxes pay for our equipment, and the county Fire Service is not associated with any fundraising company or solicitors,” Morabito said. “If residents want to support their local volunteer association and its efforts in that way, that’s fine, but I want them to understand that it’s the ad valorem taxes that support the Fire Service itself.”