| Editor’s note: What’s your take on “two-hatting?” Is it inevitable more volunteer departments will follow the route taken by some of those mentioned in the following article? Have your say the FireRescue1 forums. |
By Jared Janes
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — Firefighter Trey Jackson had the coffee brewing at 5:45 a.m., the last step before closing out yet another long shift at the station.
Soon a new crew showed up at the St. George fire station on Castille Road to relieve him and start a new 24-hour shift. Jackson, 32, greeted the captain taking his place, gave him a rundown on the previous shift and wished him well.
But like the arriving firefighters, Jackson’s workday was just getting started.
A nine-year veteran with the St. George Fire Protection District in East Baton Rouge Parish, Jackson climbed into his pickup to make the 30-minute drive to his second job at the Walker fire station in Livingston Parish.
The Livingston Parish Fire Protection District, based in Walker, is one of many suburban or rural departments facing a burgeoning population and fewer volunteer firefighters.
Needing trained workers available at odd hours — especially weekday mornings, when many volunteers are at their real jobs — departments are increasingly depending on paid part-time workers, many of them career firefighters like Jackson.In Walker, the fifth-fastest-growing city in the state, Livingston Parish Fire Protection District 4 hired its first part-time employees nine years ago to bolster the volunteers. The number of part-time workers has grown steadily since.
Jackson, who started volunteering at District 4 after moving to the area in 2001, was hired as a part-time firefighter four years ago.
Twice a week he leaves a St. George fire station after a 24-hour shift, then stops to put in 12 hours at the Walker station.
The only real difference in the two jobs is the names on the helmets.
“It’s all pretty much the same job — just a different truck and a different uniform,” Jackson said. “That’s really the only difference.”
Double duty
“Two-hatters” — firefighters who work for two departments — are an important part of fire protection in small communities, said Dave Finger, director of government relations for the National Volunteer Fire Council.
A 2006 grant application provides a picture of their numbers. Nationwide, departments applying for Homeland Security grants reported 27,734 two-hatters, with 341 in Louisiana, statistics provided by Finger show. But he said the actual number is probably higher, since many departments with two-hatters didn’t seek a grant.
The phenomenon has tracked a national decline in the ranks of volunteer firefighters, Finger said. While 72 percent of the nation’s firefighters are volunteers, their numbers have dropped more than 8 percent since 1984, mostly because of the increased time demands on volunteer firefighters, he said.
Fire departments that rely wholly or partly on volunteers have traditionally been training grounds for firefighters who go on to be full-time professionals. Now those volunteer and so-called “combination” departments are recruiting career firefighters back for part-time work, Finger said.
Training requirements for firefighters require a huge time commitment, making it a challenge for departments to recruit and train volunteers. Two-hatters don’t have to spend time outside of work getting that training. They also bring their experience at large departments to outlying areas.
But perhaps the most appealing aspect of career firefighters to fire chiefs in parishes like Ascension, Livingston and Iberville is their availability. Most union firefighters work 24 hours shifts, then get multiple days off in a row, Finger said.
Livingston Fire Protection District 4 Chief James Wascom said about 80 percent of the part-time employees at the district’s stations are firefighters elsewhere. He uses them extensively during the day between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The department still depends on volunteers to make calls in the evening and at night, Wascom said. With a coverage area that encompasses about a third of Livingston Parish and a call volume approaching 4,000 a year, he’ll take any help he can get.
The part-time professionals are just one piece of the department’s personnel puzzle, he said.
“Volunteers get on the truck just like the paid man does, and when they get there, they’re ready to go to work,” Wascom said. “But you can’t always have that.”
Suburban growth
Wascom, now 38, grew up in Walker in northwest Livingston Parish and spent much of his youth at the fire station with his father.
His father, who was a volunteer, started taking his son to the station when Wascom was 8, putting him to work rolling fire hoses, cleaning the station and learning basic fire suppression.
Walker was still a place where people had to drive 10 minutes to Denham Springs if they needed groceries, he said.
“Now,” he said, motioning to the growth beyond the walls of his office, “look at us.”
About 6,100 people lived in the city in July 2006, an increase of 1,300 since 2000, according to the U.S. Census. The district also covers Watson and Port Vincent, which are both experiencing population growth.
The new businesses and homes mean more fires, more automobile wrecks and more people needing first aid, driving up the number of calls for help.
Volunteer fire departments often struggle in such situations, Finger said. Some find it hard to recruit volunteers from the city dwellers or suburbanites who are moving into outlying areas, he said.
The extensive training required — District 4 volunteers need about 280 hours each year — also makes recruiting difficult. Volunteers and even paid part-timers all have regular jobs, families and other commitments that get in the way of firefighting.
Wascom said the time burden placed on volunteers, who number about 100 in his district, has led him to firmly believe in the adage, “Nothing is stronger than the heart of a volunteer.”
Some communities give small stipends, often covering fuel costs, to volunteers for each call they make, Finger said. And the Louisiana Legislature last year approved an income-tax deduction of $500 for those who volunteer at least 30 hours a year.
Despite such measures, growth has led many departments through a natural process from an all-volunteer system to a combination setup. Combination systems range from a career chief overseeing an otherwise all-volunteer department to a mainly career force supported by volunteers during major incidents.
District 4 is somewhere in the middle, too large to be entirely volunteer but too small to afford the pay and benefits for a roster of full-time employees.
District 4 made its first move away from all-volunteer in March 1999 by hiring part-time workers to supplement volunteers. Wascom was one of those hires, working part time while still a full-time firefighter with St. George.
Wascom is unsure when, if ever, his department will need to hire full-time firefighters. But he said it’s obvious that the growth in his fire protection district is not yet over.
“We’ve come a long way,” Wascom said. “We’re fixing to go further.”
Part of the process
St. George Chief Gerard Tarleton was once where Wascom is now.
In a 30-year career with St. George, Tarleton has watched the district - which covers a large swath of East Baton Rouge Parish - move from a volunteer force to a combination department to one of solely career firefighters.
Nine years ago, still relying on a mix of career and part-time workers, the department crossed a threshold, said Tarleton, who started as a volunteer and has been chief for 20 years. Voters approved a new tax that allowed the department to hire its first rookie class.
Since then, St. George has gone from six full-time firefighters to about 120.
Fire departments in places such as Walker, Prairieville and Livonia may wind up going through the same process, Tarleton said. Even the Baton Rouge Fire Department was chartered as a volunteer department before evolving to meet demands.
When St. George still relied heavily on part-time employees, many of them also worked at the Baton Rouge Fire Department, Tarleton said. Now his department is in turn supplying manpower to others.
He estimated about 15 percent of St. George firefighters work part-time at other departments.
Across the Mississippi River, in Livonia, a steady stream of cars - mostly commuters heading to work elsewhere - each morning rolls past the open doors of the Pointe Coupee Parish Fire Protection District 4 station on La. 78.
Inside, a handful of Baton Rouge firefighters test the equipment, fuel the trucks and make trips to check on the district’s unmanned stations.
Two years ago, Pointe Coupee voters approved a tax that gave each of the parish’s five fire protection districts extra funds, said Shane Dedon, a part-time captain with the district who is also a 26-year veteran of the Baton Rouge Fire Department.
District 4’s board decided to devote the extra revenue to hiring part-time workers. More than a dozen career Baton Rouge firefighters fill those part-time spots in a district still overseen by a volunteer chief.
Most have lived in Livonia or other nearby towns all of their lives and commute to their jobs at the Baton Rouge Fire Department, Dedon said. When an opportunity arose to stay close to home and earn more money, he said, many took it.
The Baton Rouge Fire Department starts its firefighters at $27,000, with an additional $5,000 available through the state after a year on the job and earning EMT certification.
In his first 20 years as a firefighter, Dedon worked a second job in the petrochemical industry during his off hours.
With many volunteer departments now hiring part-time workers, he said, a career firefighter can pick up a second fire department job paying an average of $12.50 an hour.
But the pay isn’t the main draw, Dedon added.
The firefighters benefit from finding extra work in a career they enjoy, Dedon said. And people who live in those districts benefit from improved response times and knowing that firefighters are on duty.
“When people pass along here and see this place open for business, it makes them feel comfortable,” Dedon said, watching traffic through the Livonia fire station’s open doors. “They see us out doing our job in the parish, and it makes them feel good.”
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