A burning issue
Derrek White is chief of Denbo Vesta Six Volunteer Fire Company – and proud of it.
“This comes from my heart. It is something I love to do,” said White, who remains passionate about the grimy, frequently grueling endeavor he embraced three decades ago.
He has been in charge of Denbo Vesta Six for five years after lengthy stints at units in Marianna and Richeyville. Ensuring the safety of nearby residents has been paramount wherever he has been.
“You want to protect the community,” he said. “There is a lot of training you put in, you risk your life and you don’t get paid. It takes a lot for a volunteer unit to do that. It takes a lot of pride.”
White, however, readily admits “running a volunteer company is very stressful.” And, with department costs escalating as firefighter numbers continue to drop, the stress-o-meter keeps rising.
Volunteer firefighting has become a burning issue nationwide, and the burn is being felt in Washington and Greene counties and throughout Pennsylvania. Statewide, the number of volunteers has plummeted dramatically over the past 40 years, from about 300,000 to 50,000.
“There used to be six volunteers for every one today,” said Tim Solobay, state fire commissioner and assistant chief of the Canonsburg department.
“Volunteer firefighting is a very concerning issue,” added Ron Sicchitano, deputy director of Washington County Department of Public Safety.
Not having enough firefighters, or any of them, immediately available in an emergency results in a delayed response – especially in a rural area. And 48 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are categorized as rural, including the two aforementioned.
It is a “very concerning” situation, indeed.
There are many reasons for the nosedive in numbers, the most obvious being the inherent danger of entering a blazing structure. But becoming a volunteer also requires a painstaking series of training, financial expense and time. People working full time nowadays are less apt to devote more hours to a service job that doesn’t pay. Plus, the vision of racing in a truck – in full uniform – to save lives is not as alluring as when Baby Boomers were growing up.
There are 1,745 volunteer departments in Pennsylvania, roughly 98 percent of all fire units. Solobay, a firefighter for 41 years, said about 32 other companies are composed entirely of paid staff, or “career” units, including Washington and Pittsburgh.
Washington County, he said, has 52 departments, a few of which have one or two paid members. Greene has 16 companies, all entirely volunteer, according to Jeff Marshall, chief of Waynesburg Franklin Township Fire Company.
The cost of running a single company can be formidable. A truck, Solobay said, runs $400,000 to $500,000. A helmet costs about $600. Equipment purchases and upgrades and firehouse maintenance, including the surrounding property, can be steep.
“We have truck payments. We just got an engine refurbished, and fuel is pricey,” said David Hilderbrand, chief of Claysville Volunteer Fire Department, which uses a lot of fuel.
He said last week his unit had responded to 537 calls this year, an average of about two a day, while serving the borough, Buffalo Township, and parts of East Finley Township and Donegal Township. The company also assists with crashes and fires on Interstate 70.
Claysville is a typical volunteer company of today, relying heavily on fundraisers and donations. Mt. Pleasant Fire Company’s Hickory and Southview stations benefit from the popular annual Hickory Apple Festival, conducted last weekend.
“We have fundraisers, and the community helps us with donations,” said White, of Denbo Vesta Six. “We basically depend on our community to help us, just as they depend on our help. We have a strong community, with everyone behind each other in everything we do.”
Marshall said his department in Greene participates in fundraisers, but gets a boost from a fire tax initiated in 1989. Waynesburg adopted the tax first, followed by the three townships the company serves: Jefferson, Washington and Whiteley.
“We get about $150,000 from the four. We budget it well and get independently audited every year to make sure the money is being spent properly,” Marshall said.
Cecil Township has a three-mill tax that supports its three fire units, which also benefit from an annual weeklong carnival and other fundraisers.
Merging companies is another cost-cutting option that has been gaining momentum.
The decline in numbers, however, is the most alarming aspect of volunteer firefighting today. Fewer young people have the time and interest in joining a service that may require hundreds of hours of training, is hazardous and doesn’t pay off in pay. And as families have gotten smaller, the time-honored tradition of generation following generation into the firehouse has diminished.
A career firefighter in most municipalities nationwide must undergo about 600 hours of training. Sicchitano, of Washington County public safety, said becoming a basic volunteer requires at least 144 hours of training. But further certifications, and more hours, are needed to perform a number of specialized tasks.
Training and instruction are conducted at the Washington County Fire Academy in Chartiers Township, a facility that public safety oversees and the Washington County Firemen’s Association owns.
Boosting their ranks is a priority for volunteer companies, many of which are actively recruiting would-be members. South Franklin Township has expressed a need for firefighters on its website. Even Washington, a fully paid unit, recently advertised for job candidates.
“We don’t have many wanting to join,” said Claysville’s Hilderbrand, whose unit has about 20 active members. “Most of our junior (firefighters) are in because their parents were, but there aren’t as many new faces.
“We do try to promote our company to young kids – ‘Come in and hang out a little bit’ – but most don’t seem to be interested.”
Hilderbrand also is among volunteer fire officials who are seeking more than firefighters. The Claysville department could use volunteers to assist with computer functions and paperwork.
White said his department has 22 active members “and I’d love to have 42. I’d love to have anyone. I commend anyone who wants to do something like this.”
Marshall said his Waynesburg Franklin Township unit has “25 to 30 who show up regularly,” some of whom represent multiple generations of families. But he admitted he has “seen a dropoff” in young volunteers.
The majority of firefighters nationwide do this without compensation. Of the 1,134,400 who served in 2014, according to Wikipedia, 69 percent (788,250) were volunteers and 31 percent (346,150) were career firefighters. Those percentages have probably changed slightly because of the dip in volunteers.
Solobay is concerned that if this trend continues, it could have a profound financial effect on municipalities throughout the Keystone State. Some, perhaps many, would have to switch to fully paid departments, which would include mergers.
That would mean higher taxes.
“It takes thousands of dollars to operate a fire department,” Solobay said. “It could cost millions if we don’t get volunteers. If we go (completely) to career departments, local tax bills (statewide) would increase about $10 billion a year.”
Other possible solutions, some extremely creative, have been proposed or implemented. They include:
• Act 172, signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf last November, which allows municipalities to offer either real estate or earned income tax credits to volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel. The decision is up to the individual towns.
• FireVEST, an Allegheny County program, that provides full scholarships to incoming and current volunteer firefighters at Community College of Allegheny County.
• A juvenile probation program in the Westmoreland County city of Latrobe in which juvenile offenders perform community service at volunteer firehouses.
Firefighting isn’t quite at a crisis stage, but more proposals and more creativity are needed. More dollars and more bodies would help even more. The services these people provide are invaluable to the well-being of their communities, even as their own well-being as unpaid professionals is in peril.
Derrek White – like so many of his peers in volunteer departments – isn’t doing this for the money, though. A desire to protect others, and an occasional pat on the shoulder, are motivation enough.
“A thank you,” he said, “goes a long way to many of us who don’t expect to be paid.”