Declining Volunteers a Real Issue in Rural NY

[Dinosaur 844]

http://auburnpub.com/news/local/article_b6b0189f-6cea-5104-8d73-14adc933089d.html

The call started with six responding departments. It increased to 22, all to have enough water hauled to the scene, and enough manpower.

“You look back and see that, it happens that way,” said Jim Perkins, chairman of the Cayuga County Fire Advisory Board. “We just keep calling more departments until we get enough people. It’s pretty much normal nowadays.”

So, when Brian Dahl, director of Cayuga County Emergency Services, stood up at a Judicial and Public Safety Committee meeting in November to tell legislators that his office was looking into the possibility of a countywide fire department, jaws dropped. It was situations like the fire on Townline Road that motivated Dahl to start a conversation about the future of the fire service.

"I wanted to make sure legislators knew we were looking down an avenue that, you know, this may be coming knocking on our doorstep," Dahl said. "Eleven years I've been here, and I'm slowly watching the fire service dying out."

Edited December 20, 2015 by Dinosaur

[M' Ave 1,466]

Unfortunatly, this issue is not confined to "rural" NY. Declining volunteerism is an issue from the city line, north. That said, there are a lot of dedicated volunteers who could (and would like) to do more. The current system is truely a hindrance and a serious overhaul is needed. Smaller town and village fire departments shouuld be combined into larger area districts. The pool of active volunteers would better service a larger area and more call volume. In areas where necessary, by population and call volume, could be supplemented by a career staff.

Towns and villages really need to give up a little control and allow for a vastly superior, efficient reorganization. Emergency services can operate more effectivly on economies of scale, to some degree.

I live in Westchester, in a high-tax community. I work in the poorest congressional district in the United States. The residents of said congressional district recieve vastly superior Fire and EMS service. Why does anyone think this is acceptatble? Everyone, regardless of municipality should demand equal emergency service protections.

This is not a volunteer/career issue. This is not one municipality vs. another....this is a life safety issue for citizens and responders. We can better utilize our emergency personel, improve and better utilize volunteer service and compliment with career firemen when needed.

Lets smarten up.

[FFPCogs 863]

Unfortunatly, this issue is not confined to "rural" NY. Declining volunteerism is an issue from the city line, north. That said, there are a lot of dedicated volunteers who could (and would like) to do more. The current system is truely a hindrance and a serious overhaul is needed. Smaller town and village fire departments shouuld be combined into larger area districts. The pool of active volunteers would better service a larger area and more call volume. In areas where necessary, by population and call volume, could be supplemented by a career staff.

Towns and villages really need to give up a little control and allow for a vastly superior, efficient reorganization. Emergency services can operate more effectivly on economies of scale, to some degree.

I live in Westchester, in a high-tax community. I work in the poorest congressional district in the United States. The residents of said congressional district recieve vastly superior Fire and EMS service. Why does anyone think this is acceptatble? Everyone, regardless of municipality should demand equal emergency service protections.

This is not a volunteer/career issue. This is not one municipality vs. another....this is a life safety issue for citizens and responders. We can better utilize our emergency personel, improve and better utilize volunteer service and compliment with career firemen when needed.

Lets smarten up.

Amen to that M

[S1720G 62]

M f'n ranch . Mmmmhmmmmmm

[dwcfireman 656]

Unfortunately, consolidation or reorganization is a tough thing to talk about (as this has been discussed in several circles over and over again on this site). So, my suggestion is to start small. What if you start with more dual responses for certain types of calls? I have a good example of how we can start small:

In the town of Livonia (Livingston County), there are 3 departments; Livonia, Lakeville, and Hemlock. Livonia has a lot of members and money, Lakeville has few members and a lot of money, and Hemlock has few members and little money. Consolidation was briefly discussed, but ultimately shut down. The solution, however, was a dual response plan for structure fires and MVA's with reported entrapment. The dual response is 24/7, and immediately places 3 engines, 2 tankers, and a ladder on a structure assignment; a MVA with entrapment gets 2 engines with a third on standby (either Lakeville or Hemlock, depending on which side of the town it's on). So, a structure assignment, assuming 3 or 4 firefighters per rig (not counting the tankers) gives you 9-12 firefighters on the initial assignment. This is enough to get a strong attack started upon arrival.

Moral of the story: Consolidation/reorganization doesn't have to be an immediate thing. You can start small and work together with your neighbors to start filling the holes.

[Dinosaur 844]

Unfortunately, consolidation or reorganization is a tough thing to talk about (as this has been discussed in several circles over and over again on this site). So, my suggestion is to start small. What if you start with more dual responses for certain types of calls? I have a good example of how we can start small:

In the town of Livonia (Livingston County), there are 3 departments; Livonia, Lakeville, and Hemlock. Livonia has a lot of members and money, Lakeville has few members and a lot of money, and Hemlock has few members and little money. Consolidation was briefly discussed, but ultimately shut down. The solution, however, was a dual response plan for structure fires and MVA's with reported entrapment. The dual response is 24/7, and immediately places 3 engines, 2 tankers, and a ladder on a structure assignment; a MVA with entrapment gets 2 engines with a third on standby (either Lakeville or Hemlock, depending on which side of the town it's on). So, a structure assignment, assuming 3 or 4 firefighters per rig (not counting the tankers) gives you 9-12 firefighters on the initial assignment. This is enough to get a strong attack started upon arrival.

Moral of the story: Consolidation/reorganization doesn't have to be an immediate thing. You can start small and work together with your neighbors to start filling the holes.

Tough to talk about, even tougher to implement, but here we are continuing to spin our wheels.

How about this? http://www.larchmontgazette.com/2009WP/2009graphics/firereport.pdf

Came out 6 1/2 years ago and we are not one step closer to moving toward a collaborative regional approach.