By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Across Ohio and here in Wood County, volunteer fire departments are seeing the graying of their dwindling rosters, and the aging of their costly equipment.
When Steve Powell approached the Wood County Commissioners on Tuesday about the struggles facing volunteer fire departments, he spoke with more than four decades of experience.
Powell is a 45-year member of Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department, who has served 29 years as a Washington Township Trustee. He explained the three primary areas of concern for volunteer departments:
- Recruitment – Fewer younger people are willing to put in the time and effort to become volunteer emergency responders.
- Retention – Individuals may complete the initial training, but will not remain. In many cases, especially in fire service, individuals leave volunteer departments and become full-time paid firefighters.
- Finances – Costs continue to increase. A new fire pumper costs $750,000 – $1 million. Turnout gear, required to be replaced every 10 years, costs about $5,000 per set.
To get a better handle on the local problems and possible solutions, the Wood County Township Association surveyed the 23 fire departments and 12 EMS departments in the county.
Some of the smallest fire departments have active rosters that would barely be enough for a baseball team. The firefighter rosters at Hoytville and Washington Township are at 12 a piece.
Meanwhile, as the numbers shrink, the average age of the volunteers keeps inching up. The average age of Wayne firefighters is 50 years old, while at Powell’s department it’s 48 years old.
“I’m 68. I’m not helping the average,” he said.
Much of the fire equipment and gear is also aging out. Hoytville reported its fire engine is 29 years old, while Center Township’s is 33 years old.
Wood County Commissioner Craig LaHote, a former volunteer firefighter himself, said there may be ways the commissioners can help by making state legislators aware of the challenges facing volunteer departments.
The demands placed on volunteers, the costs of equipment and gear, will necessitate changes to ensure fire and EMS services survive.
“There are no easy answers,” LaHote said.
Powell stressed that the Wood County Township Association is not declaring an immediate emergency for volunteer departments. “We are simply identifying trends and helping prepare for what the future can become,” he said.
“It’s up to us trustees to keep them going,” Powell said. “It’s not an emergency right now – but if we don’t act in 10, 15, 20 years, we’re going to be there.”
Volunteer firefighting was once a tradition – even a rite of passage – in small Ohio communities. But many volunteer fire departments across the state are finding their rosters shrinking to dangerously low numbers.
“People are not volunteering to be firefighters anymore,” Kevin Reardon, fire marshal for the state of Ohio, said in an interview with BG Independent News in 2022. Some small departments depend greatly on aging members. “The problem is we don’t have other people coming up behind them.”
Ohio has 1,180 fire departments with approximately 70% of them staffed by volunteers, who typically have other full-time jobs. That can make weekday calls very tough to staff adequately.
“It’s a huge challenge,” Reardon said.
Decades ago, being on a volunteer fire department was like being a member of a community social group. Now, it’s more like a second job – but without the pay.
Calls come during the night, during meals, during kids’ baseball games, during holiday gatherings – to render aid to neighbors across town or strangers on the highway.
Wood County still has 23 fire departments, with all but a handful being volunteer. A few neighboring departments have merged to become fire districts, but only one – Jerry City – has shut down.
Training can be a hurdle for attracting and retaining firefighters, Reardon said. The basic initial firefighter training is 36 hours. That used to be good enough to keep someone on a department for a lifetime. But now an additional 54 hours of training are required over additional three-year periods.
In some cases, the fire departments can’t afford to foot the bill, and volunteers have to pay for training themselves.
When Powell joined up 45 years ago, he was just required to take “on the job training.” Much more is required of recruits now.
“When they see 36 hours of training, plus continuing education, it might not be something they can swing,” Powell said.
Even if they complete the training, the ongoing demands discourage some volunteers from continuing. “They drop out. They just can’t do it,” he said.
In addition to firefighting skills, the volunteers learn how to handle hazardous materials, search and rescue skills, emergency medical skills, and how to drive fire trucks. They train for handling agricultural accidents, tanker shuttles to put out fires where there are no fire hydrants, fire investigations, drug overdoses, meth labs, natural gas safety, silo explosions and severe weather.
Volunteer departments also suffer because of the shift from people working in small towns to commuting to more urban areas for their jobs. That leaves fewer volunteers available in small communities during the day to respond. And unlike the past, many employers no longer allow workers to leave jobs for fire or EMS runs.
Also, there are fewer people engaged in farming on the edge of communities, and fewer of them are signing up for volunteer fire departments.
A state task force has recommended that volunteer firefighting training no longer be offered in Ohio beginning in June 2030. Current volunteers can retain their status as long as they are current on their training.
That is worrisome to Powell, who sees this as the beginning of the end to some volunteer departments.
“It’s definitely headed in that direction,” he said.
On top of the training and time demands, the equipment costs are also heavy for volunteer departments. It used to be that the gear worn by firefighters was stretched out from one generation to the next. Now that gear has to be retired at a certain point, rather than continue to be handed down.
While grants are available for some equipment such as radios, tools and trucks, they are becoming fewer and it’s never enough.
And all this is happening at a time when voters in some areas are becoming less likely to support taxes for fire services.
“Some communities are voting down fire levies,” Reardon said in 2022.
The Wood County Township Association is working to identify and seek additional funding sources. When requested, the organization will work with departments to help find solutions.
The township leaders know there is not one solution that will fit every situation, and they realize the needs vary, with the northern and southern parts of the county having very different emergency services.
Among the possible remedies:
- Use more auto-aid. While mutual aid agreements have been in place for years, immediate auto-aid improves response time and numbers of equipment and personnel responding to every call.
- Form fire and/or EMS districts. Some already exist and seem to be working well, such as Central Joint Fire District and Northwest 190 EMS, Powell said.
- Co-op agreements. This would require different departments to work and train more closely together, plus coordinate equipment purchases – but maintain their separate identities.
- Combine full-time paid personnel with volunteer members – which is needed especially during weekdays.
- Become full-time paid departments, which would be an expensive step.
- Combine fire and EMS personnel into one department.
Powell believes there is a future for volunteer fire departments, but there may be fewer of them as they form partnerships to survive.
