Volunteer fire departments across Niagara County are opening their doors to attract new members as busy schedules, training demands and economic pressures shrink the volunteer pool

By Heidi Truschel-Light
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — Many of the 26 volunteer fire companies across Niagara County will hold open houses this week in an effort to recruit new members. As times change, fire companies statewide are trying to find new ways to make volunteering for fire companies a part of residents’ lives.

“People are responding, but we’re just having fewer numbers (of people) available for responding,” said Ed Tase, immediate past president of the Firefighters Association of the State of New York (FASNY) and a member of the South Lockport Fire Company. “The volunteer fire service in New York State will never say no. We’ll always be responding. Our Recruit NY weekend it’s always been a successful weekend. We always get people in our doors. Even if they don’t want to join, they come in and understand what we do.”

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Noting the need for two companies to combine forces on Monday due to personnel, Tase said, “There’s a barn fire in Pekin, and Pekin and Sanborn are both going.”

Tase said with families needing two incomes and kids having after-school activities, people are finding it difficult to fit in time for the fire company.

Alexander Spencer, head of the recruiting and retention committee at South Lockport Fire Company, agrees that people have less available time.

“The number one reason they say no is because of their work schedule,” Spencer said. “A lot of people are working in the evenings, and fire training is in the evenings.”

Spencer said during recruiting, some people tell him, “ ‘I wouldn’t do that with no money (in return).’ It’s definitely a time thing. It has nothing to do with the pay for me. Even if I were paid to do it, it would be a time thing. There’s some people that make $20 an hour, that even at 40 hours, it’s not enough.”

For those who join the fire company, Spencer said they may not be trained in every part of response.

“Not everybody that’s a firefighter can go into a burning building because of training,” he said. “There’s two classifications — exterior firefighting and interior firefighting.” He said you can have a truck with five people, ideally, with one or two who might be certified to do the interior firefighting.

Exterior firefighting requires 79 hours of state training, Spencer said, with interior firefighting requiring another 40 hours.

“It’s at an actual class. Typically, the classes are three days a week and three hours a night. Sometimes on the weekends, when they’re doing their skills, it’s more than that. You tie that with the economy and how that’s going, and some people are getting a second part-time job. They can’t do it,” he said.

A year ago, state Sen. Robert Ortt proposed five bills to encourage and support volunteer firefighters and EMTs. The bills remain in various committees, according to Ortt’s spokesman Matt Mosher, and would address the following:

• Extending tuition-free course benefits to volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers, so they receive meaningful higher education opportunities.
• Creating a wage tax credit for employers who employ New York National Guard members, reservists, volunteer firefighters, and EMS personnel.
• Creating a wage allowance for active volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers to receive credit for each mile traveled in their own vehicle during an emergency response.
• Proposing that village boards be able to pass a local law allowing more than 45% of volunteer firefighters to live outside the village.
• Authorizing municipalities to recoup the training costs for a firefighter who is hired by another municipality. A similar law is in place for police hires.

“We’re having some real difficult times with the Senate and Assembly in Albany for quite some time,” Tase said. Twenty years ago, he said the income tax credit for volunteer firefighters was set at $200 and hasn’t been raised with the cost of living.

“If we can increase that income tax credit, that would give volunteers some money in their pocket,” he said.

Tase said there are ways to support fire companies beyond firefighting. Bookkeepers, landscapers, and other professionals can volunteer their services so the fire company doesn’t need to hire those services, he said.

“South Lockport runs on a $400,000 a year budget that covers gasoline and apparatus,” Tase said. “That’s why we do boot drives and pancake breakfasts. There’s a job for everybody in the volunteer fire service, and that’s the biggest thing we’re trying to get across to the public today. You can help somewhere.”

What is the single biggest difficulty your department has with recruitment?

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