Copyright 2006 Times - Standard
By Arcata Fire Chief JOHN McFARLAND
Eureka Times Standard (California)
Didn’t everyone want to be a firefighter at some period in their lives? Firefighters are really special to me. All firefighters are created from the same mold: they are a group of great, high quality, dependable people. The main difference between them is that some are paid and some are volunteers. They even have the same training and certification requirements.
This is an “extreme profession” that lures many volunteers to seek full-time careers because it is fun, exciting and rewarding. Statistics will show that only 1 percent of all applicants are hired. Volunteer or paid, there is a lot of family involvement and sacrifice related to supporting a firefighter. Twenty-four hours a day, every day, forever. Each volunteer averages about 40 hours per month on training and responding to alarms. Even the paid ones are subject to recall on their day off.
Ask any firefighter or their family about life’s schedule — it is both great and awful. One may pay dearly at home for missing that special family gathering while answering someone else’s personal disaster. Or we might have been out all night with the “big one.” A “big one” is always a lot better than five small ones scattered an hour apart all night. The volunteers still have to get home in time to clean up and go to work.
Where is the main dilemma of firefighting? All fire agencies, it seems, are understaffed to a level affecting safety, efficiency, physical abilities and many times even encroaching on their ability to meet the law. The other issue would be mandated training, always grossly underfunded at any department.
Safety equipment costs have soared to over $7,000 to outfit just one firefighter to fight a house fire — that is if the duty chief can assure that there are at least four firefighters on scene. “Two in and two out” is the law.
How many Firefighters do you want to respond to your emergency? Arcata’s budget allows staffing of only one paid firefighter on the first engine out the door; the volunteer response is vital to a safe and effective initial attack. Most local departments maintain between 30 and 60 firefighters. The paid ones work shifts, with one third on duty at a time. The best staffing is at Eureka, with 10 on duty and an engine crew of three who are still backed up by off-duty paid firefighters and volunteers. Many Departments, like Arcata, are forced to go as low as one. Not good. The volunteers can be hit and miss as to their availability. Then figure in the equipment, which lasts between five and 15 years before it is obsolete. With all that, fire department budgets won’t cover daily operations anymore.
So, where’s a resolution? It is all driven by the mighty dollar. The fully paid departments are typically found in the city areas where funding and back-up resources just come naturally through their city or county system. In rural America most departments are all or partly volunteer. Most operate as special districts. We are truly rural America and must depend on each other through mutual aid. No one can stand alone.
Most departments share borderline boundary responses jointly with their neighbors as automatic aid. Humboldt County has 42 fire departments with only three maintaining any paid personnel. Del Norte County has six departments with only one paid firefighter in the entire county. I have been both at both, and it’s been a real eye opener. Yes, it has been fun with the family-style operation, but as chief there is a realization that my primary obligation needs to focus on ensuring that all of the volunteer and paid firefighters live long enough to go home after the call. Their safety is paramount — and not cheap.
How are fire departments funded? Traditionally they have been funded by a tiny portion of the property taxes. That no longer provides nearly enough revenue. The most common supplement to the tax is a benefit assessment. These assessments are proportioned to be extremely fair, aimed directly at the property owners through a mail ballot. No one else gets to vote. Even so, we are frequently met with opposition from the large property owners with multiple properties; since each parcel unit carries a vote, they have control.
As a result, the little fire departments continue to struggle to provide their volunteers with reasonable safety equipment and a safe environment while they protect the public they serve so economically, efficiently and faithfully. The alternative is somewhere between a full-paid fire department funded annually at a minimum of a million dollars per engine company, or nothing. We have fire departments in Humboldt facing this issue today. This won’t do.
Fire departments are the “what if” agency. They are dispatched to virtually any crisis. Call 9-1-1 and the firemen will come. Firefighters universally provide “first responder” medical service to all of America. Firehouse EMTs are most likely to provide that initial intervention ahead of paramedic arrival that makes a difference in life or death. Volunteers respond from home to incidents in their neighborhoods. Response times don’t get much better than that. This is yet another big reason to “support your local firefighters.” Their other specialties include physical rescue, hazardous materials, fire suppression, disaster preparedness, public education and more.
Recruitment for volunteer firefighters is always a thrill. Application, interview, physical ability test, medical exam, vaccinations, recruit academy, probation, weekly drills, State Firefighter I certification, EMT I certification -- whew, and that’s only the first year or so. Most volunteer departments take in a recruit group about twice a year. Arcata Fire just received 25 applications from a single recruitment.
Apparatus and equipment is always a big funding issue with small departments. Fire engines are supposed to last 20 years. Most departments have vehicles in-service from 30 to 40 years. Can you imagine the nightmare of maintaining those elderly beasts? Your firefighters do that part too. Antique technology on the fire ground limits everyone’s trust in their own safety and their equipment. Do you want to depend on a 40-year-old truck to come to your house for an emergency? It probably will in most of America’s rural fire departments. Engines cost over a quarter million each without any equipment, radios, or hose.
After we do all of the training, safety and equipment things, there is little left to maintain the firehouse. Most fire stations in the region do not have emergency power capability and many have leaky roofs and no heat. Who fixes the building? The same volunteer firefighters, and they frequently pay out of their own pockets. How could we ever get along without them?
All firefighters are the same. Paid firefighters in our area do their work for a lot less money than their counterparts anywhere else. It is exactly the same job. That used to be justified by our lower living expenses. That too has gone away. Volunteer firefighters do that same job for free. There are some positives to this. We are really fortunate living in rural America. We have dedicated people interested in being volunteers and working for free. The public is far more self-sufficient and resilient than their city counterparts. This makes us especially capable of providing emergency services efficiently with pride and economy even with our limited resources. That’s the fun part. Making it all work, no matter what.
Public safety is highly competitive. Law enforcement issues seem to exceed fire issues in the minds of our policy makers. Humboldt pays over $10 million annually for law enforcement excluding the incorporated cities. Meanwhile, all the remaining 41 fire agencies combined budgets total less than $5 million. The definition of “public safety” does in fact include fire services. Not everyone knows that. It took an attorney general’s opinion on that recently to allow fire agencies to receive their share of funds being distributed. Then we must consider community consequence. “What if” a band of thieves was turned loose in the community overnight, how much damage could they cause compared to a fire that was allowed to burn unchecked for the same amount of time in any of our neighborhoods or business districts? The fire wins hands down and is really visible. That which burns never returns.
The North Coast has a multitude of active, eager firefighters available to assist you in a crisis. Please help those same firefighters with their crisis. They need funding assistance. Their safety and equipment needs should intimidate everyone — not just the fire chiefs and elected boards. Volunteer or paid, they deserve to have decent equipment, reliable vehicles and safe working conditions.
When we work as a team, we all win. Won’t you please join us? We’re here day and night to make things right.
John McFarland, a volunteer and professional firefighter with 40 years of experience, is Arcata Fire Protection District fire chief. He has also served as fire chief in Eureka and Crescent City.