Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared in the author’s local news outlet, TheTelegramNews.com.
By Fire Chief Ryan Pelletier
I have served in the fire service since September 1996. I spent 15 years as assistant fire chief before becoming fire chief of the City of Wellston in southeastern Ohio, where I have proudly served for the past 12 years. Our combination fire department protects a city of 5,420 residents, plus two rural townships, totaling 7,295 people across 59 square miles.
Over nearly three decades, I’ve watched this profession evolve in countless ways — some positive, others deeply concerning. The most troubling trend is the one few are talking about: the steady collapse of recruitment and retention in small-town fire and EMS agencies.
After the attacks of 9/11, we saw a surge of patriotism and community service. Our department received applications from people eager to help and ready to protect their neighbors. But as the years passed, those numbers fell sharply. As this downward trend continues, more and more small communities across our nation are facing expensive decisions and devastating cuts to emergency services.
Wellston’s fire department operates with three full-time firefighters and 25 part-time paid-on-call members. Our funding comes almost entirely from local tax levies, with very little support from the city’s General Fund. Full-time firefighters earn about $60,000 a year, but they work 2,900 hours annually to earn it. (Most corporate “9-to-5” workers work approximately 2,000 hours per year.) Our part-time members make $13 an hour, and only when they are dispatched on a call. Even the most active among them earn about $5,000 a year. Our entire annual operating budget is just $600,000.
That level of funding forces difficult choices. Many of my firefighters work multiple jobs to keep their families afloat. After working a 16-hour day, waking up at 3 a.m. to respond to an emergency becomes a painful decision: Serve your community or get the rest you desperately need. These men and women aren’t lacking dedication; they are lacking support.
The truth is simple: First responders in small communities have almost no financial incentive to serve, and that reality is driving people away from the profession. Chiefs like myself are now re-evaluating longstanding participation requirements because removing a firefighter for lack of availability often means no one is waiting to replace them.
State and federal government must act, and I believe there are practical steps that can be taken immediately.
- State government should offer a tax credit for firefighters and EMS personnel who can verify employment or active volunteer service. This would help offset low wages or volunteer status while giving chiefs a tool to maintain participation expectations.
- Public safety retirement systems should allow part-time and volunteer responders to contribute to their existing retirement accounts. This would strengthen retirement security for responders while helping stabilize the pension systems themselves. Here in Ohio, this would involve our two major retirement systems for first responders — PERS and the Police & Fire Pension Fund.
- The federal government should offer tax credit for first responders. This could be a relatively fast, flexible recruitment tool — it boosts take-home pay, targets shortage areas and supports local governments without mandating salaries. If designed as refundable, front-loaded for new recruits, and focused on high-need areas, it could meaningfully improve recruitment and early career retention.
These changes would meaningfully support our workforce without placing additional burdens on local taxpayers. In communities like Wellston, where poverty rates hover around 60%, any increase in property taxes is simply not an option. And with some Ohioans advocating to eliminate tax levies altogether, essential public safety services in rural areas are being placed directly in harm’s way.
If we continue this path, emergency services will be reduced, not because communities want to but because they will have no choice.
I urge you — the fire and EMS chiefs who represent the America fire service — to connect with your local, state and federal representatives to address this looming crisis. We cannot afford to be reactive. Tomorrow’s problem has already become today’s reality.
Our communities depend on us — and now we must depend on our leaders to protect the future of public safety in the United States.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan Pelletier is the fire chief for the City of Wellston Fire Department in Ohio.
