Who’s Gonna Pay for This?
Rural fire departments struggle to provide services. They depend on free manpower, the goodwill of community fundraising and the empathy of a city council that believes the fire service should be properly funded. Without such support, volunteer fire departments have to depend on their own sweat equity to make the department run, including tweaking equipment to make it last one more year or spending mornings flipping pancakes for a fundraiser in hopes of purchasing new bunker gear.
It’s not fair. And frankly, I don’t understand it. How do people work full-time jobs, take care of family responsibilities, and still find time to not only train for the fire service and fight fires, but also to donate to fundraising administrative tasks like stuffing envelopes for a letter-writing campaign?
I spoke recently about this with Jim Bollinger, 30-year chief of the Marble Hill Fire Department in southeast Missouri. The department is one of the lucky ones; it has an annual budget of $100,000 to support community services and to provide gear and training to the 22 volunteers on the team.
The fire department also is part of an automatic mutual-aid system with surrounding towns and is the only department that runs extrication rescues in the rural area.
“That’s because some of the surrounding fire departments don’t even get a budget from their city,” Bollinger said. “It’s like in some of these areas the fire departments are treated like the bastard child and that’s not right.”
Bollinger admits he doesn’t have an answer, only worries on how departments will stay operational while modernizing to meet current safety standards. He points to the NFPA standards for SCBA devices that pushed the price up significantly. Marble Hill is ready for an upgrade, but Bollinger is shocked by the sticker price.
“We are ready for an upgrade, and when we bought the units six years ago they cost around $1,600,” he said. “Now, I hear they may be around $7,000. It is virtually impossible at my department’s size to afford the units… and some other departments depended on fundraisers. What are they going to do?”
Bollinger believes in safety standards and has no complaint there. He just can’t see in today’s economic climate that volunteer departments are going to be able to comply — although he says they must to protect the lives of firefighters. However, the departments just don’t have the funding support from cities and counties — and can’t operate if they don’t meet the standards, he said.
“The fire service really needs support from local government,” he said. “Remember, a fire doesn’t know the difference between a volunteer and career firefighter.”
It’s not like Bollinger is saying anything new. So what’s next? Will more governments add volunteer departments into their fiscal budgets or will services be slashed across the country? I am unsure as of now, but would hate to see volunteer fire departments across the nation slowly shut down, leaving pockets of our rural communities vulnerable to fires.
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Related Topics: Mary Rose Roberts, Management & Administration, Health & Safety, Leadership
September 17th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Appears like you guys were never volunteers. That is what WE do. My Fire company does 4 or 5 pancake breahfasts, 2 or 3 spaghetti dinners, 7 sub sandwich nites and 3 04 flea markets. And We have more active members than all the other Companies around. We do some of these as benefits for our members and families that have had hard times. (Accidents, deaths, and sickness.) We do it for the food pantry. We do it for other companies members that need help. We own and maintain the fire station, 4 apparatus bays, hall kitchen and ready room. We do it because it keeps taxes down and our taxpayers can afford good modern equipment. We have two CAFS pumpers, one since 1995, only ones in 4 or 5 counties. I am retired from my work and been a member for 38 years and still put in 20+ hours a week. And make 50% of all calls.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
There is a future reckoning about to hit the fire service industry. What has been a free, volunteer service will soon face the issues as the industry transitions to a paid basis.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Fire-Department-Funding—The-4-Upcoming-Critical-Financial-Issues-That-Will-Rock-Your-World&id=1276194
http://www.firefinanceguy.com/2009/08/new-economics-of-fire-fighting.html
are just 2 of recent articles where this issue is explored.
Very well written and astute.
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