Springville, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's a problem that fire companies across the nation are facing on a daily basis - a shortage of volunteer firefighters.
While call volumes continue to increase substantially for a number of reasons - fires, medical emergencies, emergency response assistance, etc. - many volunteer fire companies continue to have issues keeping up with the demand.
"The whole volunteer thing in the fire service and EMS, they're begging for help," said Fire Chief of the Springville Vol. Fire Co., Marc Gentner.
"It's definitely not getting any better, it's going the other way. A lot of our members, and I'm one of them - I've got 46 years in here, not in this company but between this and one other company - we are fortunate over the last couple of years, we got probably six new members, and they're very active. They're in class right now, they're going to EMT class, they're taking fire classes. A lot of companies are not that fortunate."
While there is no perfect answer as to why the numbers of volunteer firefighters and other first responders are down across the board, there are a number of factors that play into volunteerism being down in general.
"Most people have to have a job, plus their spouse [or significant other] have a job, and that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for doing family-style organizations, which a fire department is totally a family-style," said West Valley Vol. Hose Co. 1st Assistant Chief John Patti. "A lot of us were born into it, so we're part of it. If we weren't, there's a good chance that we would have been doing something else. So the more people show up and the more people participate in our family setting, the stronger we're gonna get."
Patti says when he first became a junior firefighter in 2000 in the Town of Machias, there were anywhere between 25-30 responders at his department. In the Town of West Valley at around the same time, there were close to 50 responders.
More than 20 years later in West Valley alone, Patti says, conservatively, there are 12 responders that are available to respond to calls. They not only service calls in West Valley, but are also obligated to assist in surrounding municipalities both in Cattaraugus and Erie Counties.
"We still have other people that show up occasionally, and obviously that helps us out immensely, too. I've never regretted somebody for only volunteering a little bit. Please, please volunteer as much as you can. But it's about 12 people. Every department in New York State is hurting, no matter what," Patti said. "Even the paid departments are having troubles getting qualified individuals, or people that want to do that line of work."
Gentner doesn't know if numbers of volunteer firefighters will ever get back to the way they used to be, especially with more families working more and more. In addition to families putting in more work in order to make a living for themselves, there are other factors that are contributing to lower numbers of volunteers for fire departments everywhere.
"With all the state mandates and all the training requirements, I'm not saying I disagree with training because I agree with training, I disagree with the amount of training," Gentner explains. "You can't have somebody come in here and join to do one job, they really don't allow that. You've got to get the feel for the whole thing. I think maybe someday that'll change, but I don't know."
"The New York State requirements are pretty crazy, but at the same time, when you think about going to mitigate a crappy situation, if you don't have the proper training, you don't want to make it worse," Patti added. "We have to hold ourselves as volunteers to the same level as the paid guys every day of the week, only they do it every day of the week and we don't."
According to Gentner, the Springville Vol. Fire Co. last year alone had close to 800 calls the department responded to. Some of the calls were more dire than others, but they still need bodies to be able to answer the call if, and when needed.
This included a recent call for Springville on Monday night when an alleged arsonist set fire to an apartment complex in the village, displacing a number of residents. Thankfully, no fatalities resulted in the large blaze, but the call was put in for more than a dozen fire companies to respond and assist the Springville Vol. Fire Department.
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Gentner says now is such a key time for people to answer the call by donating their extra time to volunteer, and help serve the public as a firefighter.
"It's huge," he said. "I mean, it could be your family member that drops on the ground. Just like CPR, just like the whole [Damar Hamlin] thing, everybody now is on the CPR, and that's great. You can say what you want, if the person that's there already sees you drop, if they know CPR, your chance of survival is huge compared to waiting for an EMS squad to get there. The more people that know how to do it, the better off you are."
While the training is extensive and time consuming to become a volunteer firefighter, some fire departments like Springville will train anyone 100% of the way, acting as an extended family to help push everyone to be the best responder as possible.
"I'm not going to tell you that it's easy, because when you start out, it's not easy. You might have to go to school a couple nights a week from 7-10 p.m., that course might go on for four months. But once you have that, that's your initial get you going, and then you can build off of that," Gentner said. "Our company, you're allowed three years to get that class. You can respond to calls, and we do in-house training, but you do have to eventually either get EMT class or exterior firefighting. But a lot of people, once they join, they love it."
So how can more people get involved and become a volunteer firefighter for their community? There are a few different ways people can initiate the process, and it may be different depending on where you live.
"[Cattaraugus] County has their website - CattCo.org - that you can look up municipalities and find out who their chief representatives are. But for the most part, if you go to the fire hall - normally there's a training night of some sort - there'll be someone in your community that knows how to get a hold of them. If not, you make a phone call to them and leave a message, and we'll get back to you. It's as simple as that," Patti said.
"In Springville, every Monday night we're at the fire hall, we do training, we have meetings. Usually Monday nights are the nights that we're around. Other companies, I can't speak for. A lot of them, they do it on Mondays, some do it on Wednesdays," Gentner added. "But all you've got to do is either call your town or village office, [ask] who's the fire chief in any town, they can call them and they'll steer them in the right direction. Basically you fill out an application, you do an arson check - through the Sheriff's Department - and once that's done, you get interviewed by the board and then you start your probationary period."
As for the life of a volunteer firefighter, every day on call certainly varies.
"You have everything from EMS calls, sometimes you simply need fire/police assistance for road closures, and sometimes you have to react to fire situations at various places. So there's a lot to it," said Springville volunteer firefighter Erie Tuberdyke. "Some days are quiet, other days are very busy, they seem to cluster. It seems as though the call numbers have gone up quite a bit in the last few years, perhaps from an aging population for some of the EMS calls, or just general situations."
Tuberdyke joined the Springville Fire Department two years ago, but not before spending several years as part of the West Falls Volunteer Fire Company. He also serves as part of the fire department in Springville along with his wife.
While every person's decision to become a volunteer firefighter is different, Tuberdyke says for him, it was a chance to not only help the community, but also become a fabric of what's going on in the community no matter where you may be.
As for the impact of becoming a volunteer firefighter, Tuberdyke says there may be a number of benefits that people may not know about when going through the ropes.
"Volunteering, you can obtain a lot of certifications. Some of those of which are reciprocal, like down South or in other areas where you could potentially move and actually get a job doing this instead of volunteering," he said. "There are New York State programs where you're becoming certified, and a lot of this stuff is at no cost to the volunteer - you go through the company, go through New York State. So you do have the opportunity to learn a lot in various aspects, EMS, Firematic, there's a ton to it. You can do just about anything once you get in, and there's a need for absolutely every level.
"There is every level of expertise, and you can graduate through the whole system, if you want to, to get into a higher position at some point, which comes with a lot of responsibility. So some people take it at a lower level and just get in and do as much as they can with the time that they can."
Tuberdyke encourages anyone that is interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter to either look to your local municipality, or even just take the time to talk to a local firefighter about getting involved.
"Many hands make light work, and that's the whole process," Tuberdyke said. "Contact them, and somebody will reach out to you and talk to you. It's a no pressure situation."