EDITORIAL As the ranks of volunteer firefighters decrease, a regional service is needed

A couple of years ago, the website Fatherly surveyed kids to find out what they wanted to be when they reached adulthood, and the results were not entirely surprising – a professional athlete came out on top, followed by a doctor, a teacher, a veterinarian and a firefighter.
A good many of those kids probably will flood into teaching or medicine when they get older. Precious few will get megabuck contracts with baseball or football teams. It also turns out that fewer and fewer of those kids will become firefighters, at least on a volunteer basis.
As the Observer-Reporter’s Katie Anderson reported last Sunday, area fire departments are suffering from a shortage of volunteers. In the 1970s, there were approximately 300,000 volunteer firefighters ready to respond to house fires and vehicle accidents across Pennsylvania; now that number has dwindled to 50,000. Why is this happening? First, the population in rural areas and small towns is aging, and there are fewer younger people available now to replace retiring volunteers. And the young people who are left have a multitude of commitments, especially in two-earner households, leaving precious little space in the day for something as time-consuming as volunteer firefighting.
And, make no mistake, being a volunteer firefighter requires no small amount of time and sweat. Where training requirements could once be knocked out in 45 hours – just five hours beyond a typical workweek – it can now take up to 300 hours just to master “the basics,” South Strabane fire Chief Scott Reese told Anderson. To put that in perspective, 300 hours of training is about the equivalent of two months of work at a full-time job.
The escalation in the amount of training necessary is driven by the greater variety in calls volunteer firefighters must answer. More than just dousing water on a burning barn, volunteers now must answer calls for drug overdoses, flooding and fallen trees. The New York Times reported in 2014 that volunteers in Pennsylvania must also be able to respond to terrorist attacks, malfunctioning solar panels and accidents involving hydrogen-powered vehicles. No wonder 300 hours of training is necessary.
There are also fundraisers that must be organized and held. It must be noted, too, that firefighting is dangerous work. In 2016, 69 firefighters died in the line of duty, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
While state officials have been exploring incentives like property tax and student-debt relief to lure more volunteers, perhaps the most effective path communities could follow to make sure they continue to have reliable fire protection is establishing a regional service with shared manpower, resources and funding. South Strabane brought up the idea in March, and more communities need to get past the status quo-defending parochialism that can hobble changes that are necessary and, in many cases, overdue.
North Strabane fire Chief Mark Grimm said, “I think it would be a benefit to everybody. It would work, it’s just a matter of how you plan it. It would take some time to develop. You’re years away even if they started the process now.”
What are we waiting for?