Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by kim on April 7, 2008 at 2:09am

Been through that too. lol nice to see a canadian face on here lol

Permalink Reply by firechief911 on April 16, 2008 at 12:09am

well ill join the club we have slots for 22 firemen. we have had 16 for a year . we are about to have 2 more added, but are losing 2 due to new training regs in arkansas. both being 13 yr. vets both engineers. Arkansas has shot the vol fire service in the foot requring all training to be state accademy certifacate to count as training ,or you want be entitled to turnback money or grant programs . i look for a lot of depts to have major problems by cutting out in house training to certify a dept. bad thing is we had no say in it. some depts dont even know about it yet . i love training dont get me wrong . but its hard to get a man who worked 12 hrs to come to a 4 hr class 3 nights to be able to vol. we dont have a lot of people to recurit from we are mostly retired community 55 percent low income out of 16 we have 5 people under 30 and 2 of those are 29 we dont have a lot of people to recruit to start with im afraid we are in for a long haul to survive this

Permalink Reply by Rick on August 8, 2008 at 11:33pm

Has anybody tried to have an axillary team where it it is mainly made up of past member's or people that can't fill a regular spot but will help where they can? If so how's it been working for you? My dept is tring to set one up and wanted to see if it's a revivable thing to go through? I welcome any thoughts or suggestions.

Permalink Reply by MotleyMel on August 29, 2008 at 7:04am

Our dept seems to always have the same group that shows up for calls during the day. Mostly because they are the only ones around at that time. Everyone else on the dept works, but it is a problem especially when we have a large fire or complicated rescue. In these instances we are lucky to have a great dispatch system and the mutual aid of several other depts. Yeah it does get frustrating, but what can you do? Just work with what you have even if it's very little.

Permalink Reply by hardin7002 on November 8, 2008 at 12:32pm

BEING IN SMALL TOWN VOL. DEPTS. IS LIKE THAT. ONLY THE ONES THAT MAKE TIME FOR IT STICK AROUND. WITH ALL THE TRAINING THAT IS REQUIRED PEOPLE SAY THEY DONT HAVE THE TIME. UNLESS U WORK CLOSE TO WHERE U LIVE PEOPLE HAVE TO COMMUTE, KIDS TAKE A LOT OF TIME(AFTER SCHOOL ACTITIVES). SO I THINK ITS EVERYWHERE . I JUST HOPE THAT VOL ARE NOT A THING OF THE PAST

Permalink Reply by Sandi Humphfres on November 17, 2008 at 11:30pm

My dept is kind of in the same situation only we get new people but they don't stay. We due both wildland and structure/ems so our cheif keeps buying type six engines for running to wildland calls and he assinges them to the officers. The problem lies in the fact that there is a chest pain at 10:00 pm at night and you have 4 brush trucks going with med kits. The new people who are required to go to the station not to the scene get burnt out real fast just standing around while the regulars are on the calls. then when they complain about being left at the station the officers argue over who should have to go to the station. Some of them live off of their "Points Check" so they go to all of the calls. So you kinda just stop getting up when it is a lift asst and you have 4-6 people responding from home. I'm the public info officer so I can drive to any and all calls, I always go to the station first unless all of the apperatus has left. I've been in 10yrs and have been on both sides. So remember that maybe the new ones are silently being pushed aside.

Permalink Reply by Rob on January 23, 2009 at 2:19am

We have 4 stations covering 27 sq. miles. We have a roster of about 60 between the 4 stations (including 12 part time guys). You drop the chief and 12 PT guys you have 47, you drop the old guys who just hang on the roster taking up a hook on the rack, call it 30. Of those at any given time 25% will be out of service (working other places, out of town, in class, young and dumb at the bar chasing woemen and drinking... you get the idea). We are now down to call it 22 to round it off. Of those maybe 3 live in district, 1 or 2 may be at the stations, and the rest are coming from where ever. Of those available you will maybe have 15 to 20 show. Of that we will almost certainly have 3 to 4 rookies so on a good day, by the time the house is on the ground we have 16 show up, others maybe only 10 that can do anything. Of those 10 to 16, it is the same faces I see on every call, every day, any time they are available. Same story everywhere I have been unfortunately.

Permalink Reply by Rob on January 23, 2009 at 2:30am

I figured I would add a bit more after reading some of the other posts in this area. In Ohio, as many other places, you just don't have as many people willing to volunteer anymore. Then add the new regulations to get certified and stay certified you cut out some of the willing. In Ohio if you have a conviction for Domestic Violence you are inelegible for certification as a firefighter or emt. This is complicated by the fact that DV is one of the few convictions that can be carried over from your juvenile record to adult. So if you got incredibly stupid at the age of 13 and hit your mom (and she opted to call the cops rather than knock the crap out of you like mine would have) and you got convicted, you are done. Now you add con ed requirements. Lots of departments either rarely held insverice trainings or not at all. Now starting in 2008 there are required hours to recert your firefighter card, fire inspector, and fire instructor. Instructor has always had hours required, but it used to be inspector and firefighter were good for life. Lots of guys see the CE requirements for recert and decide it is not worth it anymore. I for one work 2 jobs and run on a volunteer department. I play hell every 3 years getting the needed hours in the needed areas to recert all my certs (FFII, Instructor, Inspector, and EMT-I...EMS being the worst). The FFII is not bad but the others can be challenging. Of course in the same bill when it was signed in to law it required any inservice training be conducted by a certified instructor which not all departments have further complicating things. Don't get me wrong, if you want to do it, you can, just it can be a serious turn-off for some.

Permalink Reply by steven bryant on February 8, 2009 at 1:43am

yes allways same people on scene fightihg fire. but when it comes to a meeting where there is a vote to take place everyone shows.there is one other thing because they are volunteers they think they dont have to have training, for the reason they are not paid fire fighters...

Permalink Reply by Brian DuBree on February 14, 2009 at 12:20am

As we all have the same problems we went further trying to figure out away to change that. I'm lucky because we have 2 stations and dedicated guys and gals. We are working on a few ideas. 1) being a point system that ways 12am - 7am calls more. At the end of the year we will take the points for calls, drills, meetings and fundraisers. Everyone will get tickets for being the top ten in each catagory. We will then do a drawing. 1st place is a 42" flat screen 2nd place is a Wii or Play Station 3rd a blue ray. So far we are seeing increased results.

We are also giving all our ACTIVE members free gym memberships. We are having great results with that.

Permalink Reply by Tandy Young on March 15, 2009 at 12:20am

I believe all fire departments have problems with manpower (more so with the current economy situation). I head an all volunteer department in West Alabama. We have 25 on roll and are lucky (and grateful) that we have had some new people come in. Our district covers 78 square mile and service 400+ households. All rural, lot of elderly. If its big, we get a good turnout usually. If not so big, not as many. But some of my guys are in their 60's or older, so I understand.
The ones I cant figure are the ones in the community. It seems like they think it'll interfer with their hunting, then fishing, then gardening, nascar, football and whatever else they can come up with as an excuse. If it wasnt for our mutual aid agreement with 4 other departments, sometimes we wouldnt have enough folks for a wiennie roast.
And the same goes for our rescue squad. Volunteers are tough to get and hold on to. Whatever happened to giving back to the community?

Permalink Reply by EYFD5917 on April 4, 2009 at 2:13pm

My thoughts are in line with Mark's.Going to the High Schools/Career Centers and pitching the FD seems like a great opportunity to recruit members who are not in the "family way" with more time to dedicate to the service.I also realize that there is a lot of mentoring involved,and many will not stay,but,if the right program is instituted,and there are those willing to take the time,it could certainly be well worth the effort.

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