Volunteers needed at fire departments
Not a lot of thought is given to volunteer fire departments. Pine Bluff, like Little Rock and Fort Smith, has a paid fire department. The Pine Bluff department is populated by men and women who study and train to be firefighters, all professionals who are there to react as soon as the call comes in.
Volunteer departments are a different animal. Depending on the size of the city and how much money a town wants to invest in their department, a volunteer fire department may be totally voluntary or it may have a handful of paid staff that are then supported by numerous volunteers.
The term “volunteer” is usually a misnomer. These folks get paid some but not much, maybe $25 or $35 per call and maybe more for training exercises. Mostly, though, they volunteer to serve for other reasons: giving back to their communities; the excitement of being on a team that comes to the rescue to save lives, buildings and homes; because they know that if they don’t help, there won’t be enough people to help, and on and on.
That volunteer system has worked pretty well over the years, but it’s not working very well today.
The Pine Bluff Commercial did a story on Monday about the dearth of volunteer firefighters. It was eye-opening.
You also may have noticed in your travels when you pass a volunteer fire department station that the marquee out front usually says something about staying safe and then “Firefighters Wanted.” Those letters are typically bleached from the sun because the want is never ending.
The departments our reporter talked to said they had a decent number of volunteers but that they could use more. And it does come down to numbers. When a call goes out, these folks are not sitting at the fire house playing checkers waiting to roll. They are sleeping at home or sitting in a pew at church or watching their child’s softball game or having Thanksgiving dinner, for heaven’s sake. But they drop what they are doing and head out. Some calls, a dozen may head out. Sometimes, in the middle of the day when people are at work, maybe six or eight show up. You get the picture.
That all requires a lot of cooperation and understanding. Spouses and their families have to be OK with it. And bosses have to be on board, too. We remember the story of a guy who had a car repair business. His only mechanic was a member of a volunteer fire department. So when a call came in, his one person who generated revenue for the business left for an hour or maybe three hours if the call was more demanding.
Lucky for the employee, the boss was very supportive of the volunteer fire department because he himself had been a volunteer. Other bosses might not be so inclined.
There is also a lot of danger associated with being a firefighter. There’s the obvious danger of running into burning structures or working around wrecked cars that are leaking fuel. There’s also the fumes from burning houses that carry a lot of toxic chemicals and are considered carcinogenic. Is that something you’d like to do for $25? See, it does take a special person.
Our lifestyles have also changed over the years. Children are much busier with school functions and after-school activities. Loving parents want to be there to enjoy those moments with their kids. Again, that commitment does not necessarily mix well with the impromptu calls to go put out a fire or tend to accident victims or even help someone who has fallen and can’t get up.
Not surprisingly, there are not enough firefighters to go around, not around here or across the state or in rural parts of the country, and it has gotten critical in some areas.
There are no easy answers either. So we’ll just say thank you to the folks who do take the time and put in the effort to help out where they can in these rural areas, and we’ll also encourage the able-bodied to think about joining up. If they don’t, maybe someday there just won’t be anyone.