By Josh Poltilove
The Tampa Tribune
VALRICO, Fla. — During his last official shift Saturday, Steve Prichard already had cleaned out his locker. All he had left to pack was the bedding from his bunk.
But Prichard treated the day as he would any other. He said the same was true of other volunteer firefighters at the station on Bloomingdale Avenue in Valrico, who also were in their waning days of work.
“We’ve told the county from the get-go, it’s going to be business as usual until we’re done,” said Prichard, the station’s captain.
Volunteers staff the Bloomingdale Avenue and Lutz stations. But at midnight Monday, Hillsborough County no longer will have volunteer firefighters.
The two stations — the only ones left in Hillsborough still using volunteer firefighters — will be completely staffed by the county.
Hillsborough County commissioners allocated $5.2 million to add 78 paid staff members to replace volunteers working for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.
The Bloomingdale station is a 24/7 operation and responds to about 1,500 calls a year, everything from fires to vehicle crashes to heart attacks. It has 38 volunteers, many of whom hope one day to be paid full-time firefighters.
“It’s going to be a sad moment when we’re not here anymore, that’s for sure,” Prichard said of the volunteers.
Six volunteer fire associations were functioning before a county audit was released in September. Among the audit’s findings: Volunteers often lacked experience and qualifications that career firefighters must have, and guidelines were not in place to ensure that volunteers operate according to county standards.
The audit also found that communications between Fire Rescue and the volunteers were haphazard. Two departments — Cork-Knights near Plant City and Dover-Turkey Creek in east Hillsborough — had not complied with Internal Revenue Service reporting rules for nonprofits, auditors found.
The Lutz, North Brandon, Bloomingdale and Sundance volunteer departments correctly filled out their tax forms.
“We want the same level of service and accountability” at all of the county’s stations, and eliminating volunteer staff was a way to achieve that, Fire Rescue Chief Ron Rogers told The Tampa Tribune earlier this month.
The 78 positions will be filled by March, Rogers said. Meanwhile, the county is paying overtime to existing personnel to fill in where volunteers had staffed stations previously, he said.
Francis Michael, president of the Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department, said the station didn’t have financial woes and the volunteers were well-trained.
“You can ask anybody around,” Michael said. “We are top shelf on training.”
Michael said he thinks union politics led to the closure of the volunteer stations; now more jobs are available for paid staff.
The closure will be difficult for Bloomingdale’s volunteers, who have great camaraderie, Michael said.
“It’s hard for a lot of them,” Michael said. “It’s something they love to do.”
Volunteers still will be welcome to assist paid staff members, Rogers said, and they can apply for paid positions as the jobs become available. But once 2013 rings in, volunteers will be referred to as “reserve responders.”
Earlier this month, Sharon Subadan, deputy county administrator for public safety and community service, told the Tribune that in addition to having extra hands for everyday calls or special events, the reserve responders can be tapped as a “ready training reserve” to replace people who retire.
Subadan said the department will use the Reserve Responder Program as a way to recruit new firefighters and paramedics in low-income communities, where such a career is a viable option for youngsters but not one they might readily target.
Rogers said it would be a great recruiting tool.
Information from Tribune archives was used in this report.
Copyright 2012 The Tribune Co. Publishes The Tampa Tribune