The Brookings, South Dakota volunteer fire department
(“Click” photo to enlarge)
California’s overpaid, overpensioned firefighters love to claim they merit their astronomical compensation packages because of the risks they take. They have no answer when I point out that the average California firefighter is paid 60% more than paid firefighters in other 49 states. Meanwhile the CA 2011 median household income (including government workers) is only 13.4% above the national average.
www.tinyurl.com/CA-ff-and-cop-pay
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I’ve dealt before with the fact that such firefighting risks are far less than the union firefighters claim, as there are quite a number of other occupations with as great (and sometimes FAR greater) risks than modern firefighting.
But if you really want to unsettle the union firefighters, point out that about 72% of the nation’s firefighters are volunteers. They really don’t like volunteers, and have done all they can to make it difficult to have such an option in even the most rural parts of California.
I’m not suggesting that all fire departments should be volunteers. There’s a case for an on-call fire department in urban areas, though it could be a contracted out service. My point about volunteers is that the “high pay for the risk” argument falls apart in the face of such widespread volunteer interest.
I might add that while a paid urban fire department can make sense, it ALSO makes sense in such jurisdictions to have a volunteer reserve fire brigade — for the big emergencies (in California, that’s primarily the brush fires). But the all-powerful firefighters’ unions battle against this option every step of the way.
They want “boots on the ground” — but only if they are UNION boots on the ground. They’d prefer your home burned down rather than having volunteer auxiliary firefighter support in times of need.
I decided to learn a bit more about voluntary firefighting departments. So in January 2015 I spent 3 hours with a VERY professional VOLUNTEER fire department in Brookings, South Dakota (Did I mention JANUARY! — the high that day was minus-two degrees.). Five volunteers and the paid fire chief sat down with me for a long discussion. This helped me better understand how a quality volunteer fire department works.
The town of Brookings has a population of about 22,000, plus good-sized college of about 13,000 students (2,000 or so are also Brookings residents). There are five fire stations manned by 2 pros (the fire chief and assistant chief) and 45 volunteers. The city fire department also has 270 square miles of rural area it covers. In addition there’s one paid “admin” person.
A volunteer firefighter is an alien concept to most Californians — especially our union firefighters. But it’s real, it’s working and it’s widespread throughout the nation.
Visit the South, the East, or the Midwest. Visit volunteer fire departments. It’s an eye-opening experience.
South Dakota is typical for many states. The more rural states have few paid fire departments. Only four non-military full-time paid fire departments exist in all of South Dakota. There is no firefighter “farm system” for volunteer firefighters to land the plush paid union firefighter jobs. There is no paid fire department nearby that comes over to bail them out, no matter how tough the fire is.
Darrell Hartmann, the Brookings fire department chief, is a career firefighter – but he’s spent many years running rural fire departments. His pay is about the same as the base pay for a seasoned California firefighter — $88,000 annually, with excellent benefits — a remarkably reasonable salary, given the quantum difference in responsibility. But then, I DO live in California. The Brookings fire chief gets no overtime pay, even though he and/or his paid assistant fire chief usually go on site for any fire at any hour.
Most CA labor union firefighters are simply baffled by true volunteer firefighters. It’s a calling, often multi-generational in nature – an alien thought to our mercenary CA union firefighters (though the common CA firefighter nepotism — keeping the lucrative, coveted firefighter pay positions “in the family” — is a scandal in itself).
The Brookings Fire Department annual report includes much useful information. You can read it here:
BTW, don’t be fooled by the old truck on the annual report cover — it’s a “mascot” truck for parades, etc.
And talk about extreme conditions. I interviewed Brookings volunteers, and asked them “What motivates you to get out of bed at 2 AM and go out into -25 cold with 30 MPH winds blowing to fight a fire? For FREE?”
They just shrugged their shoulders and replied “It’s what we do. It’s what our community expects.”
Of course, these volunteers come from various fields. Some are government workers, a couple work for the electric utility (providing the department with great power safety talent), some in construction. Almost all are employed or self-employed.
The volunteers have to have an employer who will let them off when a call comes in. Sometimes the employer might help with pay while they are off on a fire call. One interesting aspect is that a volunteer fire department can’t loiter too long after a fire is out — the volunteers need to get back to work, or to sleep. Unlike paid fire fighters who are on call through the night, they don’t get the next two days off.
The volunteers train weekly. The city has a low ISO rating (a national measure of firefighting effectiveness — the lower, the better) and proudly maintains an average response time of 5 minutes, 53 seconds, which includes long trips to rural fires. In the city, the response time is well under five minutes — amazing when one realizes that the fire stations are unmanned, with volunteers showing up from work or home.
As a result, the city has low fire insurance rates. According to the chief, “Our [city] rating will be an ISO 3 by the end of the year. The 270 sq. miles outside the city limits is an ISO 8a, which may drop to an ISO 6 in the near future.”
Rural areas always have relatively unfavorable ISO ratings compared to urban areas, as the response times are inevitably much longer — regardless whether a fire response unit is staffed with volunteers or paid firefighters. The 2014 chart of fire department response times is on page 5 of the fire department’s annual report.
Unlike a full-time urban fire department, the usual practice is for all stations to turn out for a fire, with an average of 25-26 firefighters reporting per call — a bigger response than urban fire departments muster in direct response. This large turnout a big factor in the quick response time.
The Brookings’ equipment rigs are first rate. Quoting the fire chief: “We run five Engines, a Heavy Rescue, an Aerial Platform, a Ladder Truck, an ARFF Truck, four Brush Trucks, two Tenders, a Zodiac Boat, 6×6 Ranger for Wildland and Rescue, Air Trailer, Collapse Trailer, and a Hazmat Trailer. We are currently replacing our 1992 Ladder Truck.”
The next oldest vehicle is a 2001 rig. The community generously spends far more taxpayer money on equipment rather than on firefighter labor — the opposite of paid fire departments.
There is some turnover in volunteer firefighters annually — Brookings lost 3 out of 45 last year. The biggest turnover factor is people moving away. It’s always a challenge to get a person to commit to being a volunteer firefighter — the training and hours are a remarkable sacrifice. But when we talked, the chief said they have 8 volunteers on a waiting list. Experience has shown that the long term, established residents are more prone to volunteer than new folks — who may not think of their new town as a long term community for themselves.
If an opening appears, the new volunteer must undergo a background check and a full physical. To quote Chief Hartmann, “We require that a new firefighter completes the NFPA Certified Firefighter I and II (180 hrs) plus the NWCG S-130 and S-190 (24 hrs) within their first year. They attend our training while also attending their required courses. Our average firefighter trains a minimum of 220 hours a year, with many well exceeding that.”
Unlike California urban fire departments, the Brookings medical response function is handled by the city-owned but independently operated hospital. It has one ambulance ready to roll, and a second stand-by ambulance can be manned in well under 15 minutes. More ambulances and crew are available if an event or disaster calls for it. All staff is paid.
As an ALS service, each ambulance is manned by at least one paramedic — the second person has to be at least an EMT. They have a staff of 22 people, though most are part-time. They gets about 170 calls a month, usually through the 911 response system, run by the police department. The city seems quite satisfied with the service.
In my city of San Diego, a medical 911 call starts a race between the city firefighters and the city-funded ambulance service owned and run by Rural Metro. Whoever gets to the afflicted person first gets to claim primacy on site, and whoever arrives second stands around to lend assistance if requested by the first team, until it’s clear they are not needed. Hence we send SIX people — most smaller communities with volunteer fire departments send just an ambulance with two trained medical personnel.
As I said, volunteer fire departments usually are not the solution for the more urban areas. But it’s an idea that, properly implemented, can offer relief to many smaller towns in California. And, perhaps most important, this widely used option puts the lie to the firefighter claim that only high pay will get people to take on the risks of firefighting — a point that’s verified by the 100+ quality applicants for each CA paid firefighter opening.
Firefighters are my heroes — VOLUNTEER firefighters.