Data

Fire Departments across the country are experiencing a decrease in volunteers. Yes, volunteers. According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, “Nine out of 10 fire departments depend on volunteers”. The shortage of volunteer firefighters echos in Pennsylvania. As Michelle Bond points out there are about 2,400 fire departments, about 90% of these departments are volunteer. Let’s put this into perspective: 0.9 x 2400, that’s about 2,160 departments in the state of Pennsylvania that are volunteer.

Importance

“Taxpayers save $10 Billion a year”

Michelle Bond

The need for volunteers becomes more apparent when looking at the amount of volunteers’ Pennsylvania has lost and the amount of money volunteers save Pennsylvanians each year. Beginning in the 1970’s Pennsylvania has experienced a loss of approximately 262,000 volunteers. The data can be seen in Bond’s report, “In the 1970’s Pennsylvania had 300,000 volunteers. Now there are fewer than 38,000”. As Chief Kevin Quinn Chairman of National Volunteer Fire Council, points out Pennsylvania’s data could be skewed and not include support personnel in fire departments. Even if the data is skewed, the amount of money fire departments save Pennsylvanian taxpayers amounts to about 10 billion dollars a year.

Time, Time, Time

Researchers have narrowed down some common reasons why departments are struggling. Several sources cite volunteers leave due to the time demand. The increase in two-income households affects the amount of time willing individuals could volunteer. Since both spouses are working, childcare may not be available. Volunteers face the need for childcare based on their own work schedule and their spouse’s work schedule. Responding to calls becomes difficult when no one is home or nearby to watch their children at a moment’s notice. Work schedules may also not allow time to respond to calls, attend meetings or participate in training. Though Pennsylvania does not require any training to volunteer, departments may require members to attend a certain number of meetings, training and calls in order to remain active. Time commitment becomes a further problem as the need for fundraising increases. Volunteer fire departments rely on fundraisers as their biggest income source. As a result, volunteers sometimes feel they spend more time fundraising than training or responding to calls. Volunteers leave the fire service due to being burned out from the time commitment of fundraising.  

Calls

PTSD and the Opioid Epidemic affect Volunteer Firefighter retention

Firefighters continually experience an increase in the amount of medical calls they respond to. A large portion of these calls can be traced back to the Opioid epidemic. The amount of Cardiac Arrest responses caused by Opioids is on the rise. Cardiac arrest calls are taxing on volunteers, even more so when caused by Opioids. The type of treatment and situation is different and causes more stress. The overall situation is frustrating as first responders are often dispatched for the same problem at the same address multiple times, due to the patient having an addiction and repeatingly overdoses. Volunteers leave due to being tired of the repeat responses and nature of the call.

Dr. Candice McDonald mentions that firefighters leave the service due to experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, (PTSD). First responders see some things that the average citizen could only guess about. These tough calls and experiences stick with volunteers and can impact their ability to perform. As a result, firefighters will keep what they are feeling to themselves and slowly stop showing up at the firehouse and stop volunteering all together.

Housing

In some areas, such as Rockland County, New York, it has been found that volunteers can not find affordable housing near volunteer departments, making it difficult to serve. In areas near cities housing can be expensive or unavailable, especially near fire departments. Rent is also expensive and not always feasible for volunteers. As a result firefighters move further from the station or out of the area completely.   

Sources

Below are the sources I used to find the information presented above in MLA Format. 
To read my annotations on each source, visit the bibliography tab.  

Bond, Michelle. “Report: Pa. Volunteer Firefighter Shortage Is A “Public Safety Crisis.” Fire Rescue 1, 29, Nov. 2018, http://www.firerescue1.com/legislation-funding/articles/393007018-Report-Pa-volunteer-firefighter-shortage-is-a-public-safety-crisis/, 27, Feb. 2018

Brown, Andrew, and Ian Urbina. “The Disappearing Volunteer Firefighter.” New York Times, 17 Aug. 2014, p. 3. Global Issues in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A378718615/GPS?u=rich43584&sid=GPS&xid=c4c41c31.

McDonald, Candice. “Busting Through Recruitment and Retention Challenges: Developing Your Game Plan.” Fire Department Instructors Conference-International, PennWell Corporation, Indianapolis Convention Center, Indianapolis, IN. Conference Workshop.

— “Retention of Internal Stakeholder’s In the U.S. Volunteer Fire Service.” Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies,  Walden University, 2016, scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3180/, PDF     

Morris, Walter A. “Firefighter Recruitment and Retention Ideas You Can Use.” Fire Engineering, vol. 157, no. 10, Oct. 2004, pp. 121–126. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=a9h&AN=14688890&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=s8356098.   National Volunteer Fire Council. “NVFC Unveils Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Campaign.”Fire Engineering, vol. 168, issue 8, Aug. 2015, pp. 38-39. Academic Search Complete,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=a9h&AN=109152656&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=s8356098