Horry County, South Carolina, laid out $90,000 to one of those consulting groups that issue reports about how to improve fire and rescue services.  During this decade of the early-2000’s, the fashion favored by most of these consultants is to preach volunteerism.  One of them up in Michigan even took money from Detroit to tell them that they’d be wise to convert the city’s entire FD to a largely volunteer force, keeping paid drivers and administrators.

But somewhere along the way nobody has clued in the consultants that the volunteer departments are having a recruiting problem, too.  Even in areas with a strong VFD tradition, such as Pennsylvania, some departments are simply unable to replace their older members as they leave the active service.

Horry County is a large part of the northeast portion of South Carolina that includes the Myrtle Beach area.  The county provides fire protection to the unincorporated areas and EMS coverage for the entire county and cities.  They operate 38 fire stations, but only 11 of them are staffed with paid firefighters.  The rest are wholly dependant on volunteer FF’s for coverage, mostly in rural areas.

Horry County Station 41

One of these, Station 41, has only one volunteer member and scrubs on 94% of its calls.  The all-volunteer station with the best response record is Station 19 which has 13 volunteers, yet still misses 39% of its dispatches.

One of the 70-some recommendations to improve service calls for the career stations to operate with a minimum of 3 FF’s in the suburban stations and 4 in the rural stations.  In addition, they call on the county to initiate “an aggressive recruitment program to increase the number of active volunteers.”  Easy for them to say.  The report does not make recommendations on how to achieve this.

They also propose doubling the number of battalions from two to four and utilizing the paid B.C.’s on weekdays and relying on volunteer Batt. Chiefs on nights and weekends.  The County is 1,100 sq. miles in area and the consultants feel that too much is left uncovered whenever there is a working incident.

The entire report is 196 pages long and you can read the document in .pdf form HERE.

Today’s edition of the Myrtle Beach Sun News carries an article about the challenges that the county is facing in getting volunteers qualified for duty.  The HCFR requires them to pass a background check, an initial agility test and a physical before actual training can begin. 

Then they have to take the standard firefighting training along with courses in CPR, haz-mat, infectious diseases and a final agility test.  A department spokesman says that the entire process can be completed in three months.

But the paper’s interviews with prospective volunteer members exposes the problems that many other VFD’s are coming up against.  And that is a growing culture of non-committment and me-first attitudes that clash with the spirit of volunteerism.

The article quotes a bunch of people whining because the requirements don’t mesh with the applicants’ personal needs.  One of them complains that the Infectious Diseases class is being held in June and July.  And that’s when a lot of people prefer to go a vacation, don’t you know?

Some of them complain about the time it takes to do the paperwork necessary to apply.  Many others flat out refuse to take the necessary classes.  About 85% of people who express an interest in joining fail to complete the required procedures.  Some of them even complained that they didn’t get enough “encouragement” from whoever they expected to get it from.

Firegeezer brings all this up because it illustrates once again the growing cultural phenomenon of people who want to feel good about themselves by being able to hang the certificate on the wall and telling their friends that they are a Volunteer.  But they don’t want to actually do any volunteering, let alone working to achieve the level of ability demanded of it.

Read the Journal Sun article HERE.
Horry County Fire Rescue department WEBSITE.

RECRUITING NEW VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS is not just a problem nationwide, but in most other countries that rely on volunteers as well.

Everywhere rolls are dwindling because new volunteers are not joining in sufficient numbers to replace older members who retire from active firefighting.

The Manlius VFD in Onandaga County, New York, has an opinion that many FD’s are overlooking a major pool of new members……. stay-at-home Moms who are at home while their children are in school and young women who are physically able to do the job, but aren’t aware of the opportunity.

This video shows how their philosophy and recruiting efforts are paying off for them.

The Manlius FD is a combination career/volunteer department that operates both fire and EMS service out of two stations in the Village of Manlius.

THIS YEAR NEW YORK STATE BEGAN OFFERING $200 tax credits for volunteer firefighters and emergency medical workers.  It was created as an incentive to encourage volunteer participation and a recruiting inducement.

Now the state’s delegate from Franklin County has launched a campaign to try and establish similar benefits at the Federal level.  District 2 Legislator Daniel Crippen (D-Burke) has drafted a letter to President George W. Bush, U.S. Rep. John McHugh (R-Pierrepont Manor), U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) seeking their support for the measure.

He said a tax credit is not only good incentive, but it is the only fair way to reward volunteers equally.  “Many young members don’t own homes, so receiving a property-tax break would not benefit them,” Crippen said.  “Nor would it be fair to the other residents of the municipality, who would have to make up the difference in taxes in exchange for the volunteers’ tax breaks.”

The Plattsburgh Press Republican has the full STORY.

RENSSELAER COUNTY, IN UPSTATE NEW YORK, is launching a program that they hope will create incentives for people to become and remain volunteer firefighters and EMT’s.

Rensselaer Engine 8-5

This incentive program will enlist local businesses to offer discounts on goods and services to active volunteers.

The Albany Times Union reports that the county will issue volunteer photo identification cards to firefighters and EMTs so they can identify themselves and their skills to other agencies when they are working outside their normal area. The cards also will be used in the Volunteer Incentive Program. The county is investing $18,000 in this program.

The county will conduct an ongoing marketing campaign to recruit volunteers; fire departments and ambulance squads are provided with information about new homeowners to contact to see if they wish to join; volunteers receive an income tax credit; scholarship lists for volunteers are being compiled; and the county is considering what educational opportunities can be offered to volunteers.

Read the full story HERE.

Firegeezer adds:  If the townsfolk wish to reward the vols. with discounts, etc., that’s fine.  But I really doubt that will encourage people to join up with the local VFD.  You either want to do it or you don’t.  Knocking 20% off the dry cleaning bill isn’t going to instill a desire to spend untold hours each week pulling duty at the squad.

One of the continuing threads running through the Firegeezer pages is the growing efforts of many of the volunteer departments to replenish their rosters with new members.  For whatever reason, interest in joining the fire departments and rescue squads is waning dramatically.  In some areas long-established organizations are drying up entireley.  Last month we reported on a 120-yr.-old VFD in Louisiana that was shut down permanently for lack of participation.

There are several speculative reasons tossed around as to why this is happening and we’ve touched on them before.  But what I am more interested in are the innovative ways that are being attempted to recruit new members.

This is vital for the paid departments, too, because the volunteers have long been a feeder system to develop and send recruits to the paid departments.  But the dynamics of this labor flow have changed dramatically lately.  Within the span of one generation, some areas that were covered by all or largely volunteer departments have grown to the point of needing full-time career FF’s and EMS personnel.  This is fine when it starts because the needed labor force is already there, fully trained and established within the department. 

But as the local pool of recruits runs low, then they start drawing from other areas that are still all-volunteer.  And as those enthusiastic members move on to a career in the emergency services, the active membership of the volunteer company dwindles to the point where they sometimes scratch calls.  One vol. chief told me recently that many of the people who join his all-volunteer department do so with the intention of developing their skills to prepare for application to paid departments.

Many paid departments now are requiring applicants to already possess either a FF-I or FF-II certification before they can be hired.  This has been a mixed blessing for the volunteers because it encourages people to join in order to attain the certification.  And the paid departments benefit by having a pre-screening of sorts that will present them with applicants who have already demonstrated a desire and the competency to successfully make it through the department’s recruit training program.

But this cultural glitch has arisen that has kept potential candidates from even considering  Fire and EMS as worthwhile career - or community volunteer - endeavors.  And that brings us back to square one.

Firegeezer is looking for a correspondent who is willing to keep an eye out for these various programs that are being tried to find new members for the VFD’s and ambulance squads.  If you are involved in such a program or are interested in following it, and you would like to help keep our readers informed of the success of these endeavors, please write to us at:  geezerguys (at) yahoo (dot) com and let us know.

Now let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’m ready for some coffee.