GRAND JUNCTION (AP) – Volunteer firefighters have to do more than ever before – more training, expanded responsibilities and an increasing number of calls, and without a salary to live on.
Adding to that, not many who start as a volunteer firefighter are expected to stick around for very long.
“The days of employers letting their employees leave their job to respond on a fire call, on a rescue call, to go battle a wildfir e… that doesn’t happen anymore,” Clifton Fire Protection District Chief Charles Balke said. “Employers can’t afford to have their employees be gone for several hours to go intervene in a medical emergency.”
Balke first put on his volunteer firefighter hat as a teenager in Arizona, while paying the bills by working as a mechanic and doing landscaping work.
He said volunteers and part-time employees spend an average of 3.2 years at the department before moving on.
“And that number keeps getting smaller and smaller,” he said. “Volunteers used to stick around for a number of years. Four or five years out of a volunteer or part-timer these days, we come out ahead.”
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, 77% of Colorado fire departments are either volunteer-based or mostly volunteer (46% volunteer, 31% mostly volunteer), compared to 23% career-based or mostly career (14% career, 9% mostly career).
Clifton Fire is a combination fire department with both part-time and full-time employees. With six volunteers currently, they are hardly the only local volunteer fire organization seeing the trend of a shrinking volunteer base.
Palisade Fire Chief Richard Rupp started as a volunteer 38 years ago and has seen just how much the volunteer firefighter industry has changed over the years.
Set to retire in September, he knows firsthand the challenges being a volunteer firefighter in 2020 bring with it.
“When (volunteers or part-timers) get a chance, they are going to jump ship and go for a full-time position and, personally, I don’t blame them,” he explained.
He said working as a volunteer for a few years can provide young firefighters with an ideal background to springboard their career.
He said larger fire departments on the Western Slope have become funnels for most of his new volunteers.
Increased trainingToday, Palisade firefighters respond to 80% emergency medical service (EMS) calls.
“It has advanced tremendously,” Rupp said.
Volunteer firefighters respond to a wide range of emergencies in Mesa County including fires, emergency medical incidents and other general service calls.
As such, volunteers must spend a significant time training to prepare for the variety of emergencies, and that training is usually done at no pay or just a small stipend.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, the number of volunteer firefighters has significantly declined in recent years. The volunteer firefighter numbers for 2016 and 2017 were the lowest recorded levels since the NFPA began a national survey of fire departments in 1983.
Yet, volunteers account for 65% of firefighters in the U.S.
The time donated by volunteer firefighters saves localities across the country an estimated $46.9 billion per year, according to the NFPA.
Recruiting challengesFirefighters are not only asked to do more in 2020, but call volume for fire departments across the U.S. continues to go up, while the number of firefighters has remained the same.
According to the NFPA, the total number of calls for U.S. fire departments has gone from just under 12 million in 1986 to over 35 million in 2016. Meanwhile, the number of firefighters in the NFPA survey was 1,025,650 in 1986 and 1,056,200 in 2017.
Recruiting challenges for many fire departments across the U.S. include time demands, training requirements, increasing call volume, and wide response roles.
Lands End Fire Protection Chief Brian Lurvey said his staff is mostly made up of volunteers ages 25 to 45, though he said it was getting younger and younger.
He said the department will fluctuate in terms of its volunteer base, losing three to four people a year.
At nearly seven years with the department, he’s one of the longest that has been there among his staff.
The futureWhile still in the early stages, Mesa County fire departments have discussed what the future structure of regional firefighting may look like.
Palisade Chief Rupp said they’ve met with neighboring departments and discussed the possibility of a merger.
“We’re not the only department having difficulties, a lot of them are,” he said. “It’s getting really tough.”
Clifton Chief Balke said they’ve had preliminary conversations about what consolidating and merging may look like.
He said they’ve discussed how to reduce duplication efforts and costs, such as forming an intergovernmental agreement and pooling resources and collaborating on things like independent fire academies, supply ordering and legal resources.
Consolidations and mergers have been talked about for years, according to both chiefs, but without a timeline in place it remains business as usual at each agency as the future is discussed.
