By Lynda Guydon Taylor and M. Ferguson Tinsley
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
To fight fires, you have to hustle.
When he started running to fires in 1979, Mark Piantine said, his volunteer fire company handled an average of 130 calls a year. Today, the fire chief speeds with the 45 members of the Derry Township Volunteer Fire Co. to 625 calls annually.
They cover 75 square miles comprising homes, schools and businesses of some 10,000 people, roughly two-thirds of the local population.
That’s the bottom line for volunteer firefighters: protecting homes and property. So when you’re low on volunteers, it matters.
A loss of volunteer firemen and women is being felt nationwide, especially in Pennsylvania, in which more than 90 percent of the 2,462 fire departments are volunteer, according to a report to the state Senate in 2004. The national average is 73 percent. The number of Pennsylvania volunteers has been falling for 30 years, however, down from 300,000 in 1976 to 72,000 today.
“It’s tough for everybody,” Chief Piantine said.
Unpaid rescuers must commit to 160 hours of training, and rookies are tough to come by.
The trouble is that, so often, men and women work full time to provide for their families. Thus, there is little time left for volunteering, be it for training, fighting fires or fund raising for the department.
Derry has to raise $50,000 to $60,000 a year to keep operating, $10,000 of which comes from the township and the rest from Chinese auctions, raffles and dinners.
But now there is proposed legislation from U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, designed to encourage more people to volunteer.
In May, Ms. Hart introduced the Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment and Retention Act. It would provide: a $1,000 tax credit to those who spend at least three years on the force, continued $1,000-a-year tax credits up to seven years and a $1,500 credit once a volunteer reaches eight years of service. It would help to defray any costs firefighters incur, Ms. Hart said.
The Joint Committee on Taxation has yet to figure out the cost in terms of lost tax revenue.
A 2001 Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute Study, however, estimated the value of services provided by volunteers statewide at $6 billion annually, taking into account firefighter salaries and benefits alone.
The Hart bill is in the House Ways and Means Committee, on which she serves. And her bill is not the only one to tackle the problem. Four other congressional bills calling for tax credits, three in the House and one in the Senate, have been proposed. Other bills addressing the need for volunteers have been proposed in the state General Assembly.
Communities deal not only with fewer recruits but also with challenges such as chemical hazards and terrorism.
Firefighters say the work is surely dangerous, but it also takes time from family, Ms. Hart said. The tax credit is in direct relation to what volunteers lose as a result of giving of their time. “It’s a good way to tell them thank you.”
Ms. Hart believes congressional legislation has a good chance for passage because it is cost effective and in keeping with community service.
“I applaud anyone who’s trying to help us,” Churchill Chief Craig Robinson said. “It’s very difficult.”
He said he struggles to add to his roster of 20. To reach recruits, the 64-year-old company depends mostly on direct mailing. State Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, has nailed down funds to defray postal costs, Mr. Robinson said.
Some costs are covered by the borough, which allots $6,000 a year along with half the bill for larger trucks. A $400,000 pumper/rescue truck is on order now.
Still, without committed volunteers, expensive trucks are useless.
Ms. Hart’s idea is “good incentive,” Chief Robinson continued. But “the young folks don’t get it [yet]. As older members become family men and women, they understand that would be a help.”