By Anna Wiest
The Daily Item
DANVILLE, Pa. — Over the past year and a half, volunteer firefighter Eric Frantz has made it his mission to energize the next generation of first responders.
Frantz, a volunteer with East End Fire Company, was responding to an emergency in late summer 2023 when he realized the group of local active volunteers was aging.
“Once everything was established, I was kind of just standing there looking at everyone on the scene and I was kind of taking an inventory of who was there and I noticed that I was probably the youngest person,” Frantz, 46, said. “That was the point at which I just kind of thought to myself ‘What can we do to get some more folks involved that are younger.’”
Frantz said he polled all nine fire chiefs who cover the Danville Area School District’s footprint. In August 2023, the nine departments had a combined total of six junior firefighters.
Frantz said he approached Danville Area Superintendent Dr. Molly Nied about the possibility of getting firefighting classes into the high school.
After talking to Nied, Frantz realized classes would be quite a process to take on. The superintendent suggested starting a club at the high school to get things moving.
Frantz began hosting events for Danville Area high school students at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year with the help of the agriculture department and teacher Van Wagner.
Throughout the fall of 2023, Frantz visited Wagner’s agriculture classes to talk about volunteer firefighting.
In the meantime, Frantz said he was authoring a constitution for the Danville Fire Club which was ratified by the school board in December 2023, making the club official.
The club held about 12 events throughout the 2023-2024 school year, which included a dozen students visiting Harrisburg for the State Fire Expo in May, according to Frantz.
“It was kind of cool because when we were there at the fire expo, there were career departments there, actually there for the purpose of trying to recruit people,” Frantz said. “So in strolls the Danville Fire Club ... they were like vultures coming out to talk to the kids.”
Fire Club Vice President and Danville Area High School Sophomore Lillyanna Torres was one of the first members of the club. Torres said she has seen the club and the number of junior volunteers in the area grow under Frantz’s leadership.
Frantz is someone Torres and other club members look up to.
“He’s a great role model,” Torres said. “He knows what he is talking about and he’s very passionate about it.”
By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, Frantz said the club had about a dozen members. While not all members were affiliated with a firehouse, Frantz said that is the ultimate goal.
Currently, the club has about 20 members, 12 of which are affiliated with a firehouse, doubling the total from August of last year, Frantz said.
“It’s going well. It’s definitely increasing the number of young folks that are involved in our area,” Frantz said.
Frantz would like to see the club grow to include ten students in each grade, he said.
“We feel as students graduate and move on, we’re definitely going to lose some to college or moving out of the area,” Frantz said. “We’re hoping a number like 10 would result in some staying.”
On a larger scale, Frantz said he’d like to see schools across the state making similar efforts.
Representatives from neighboring districts have already observed club events at Danville or contacted Frantz about the club. The Shikellamy School District now has a fire club. Frantz said he’s also received inquiries from Southern Columbia, Berwick, Milton, Warrior Run and Line Mountain.
Word about the club has even traveled across state lines and oceans as Frantz said he’s received messages from individuals in Ohio and as far as Australia.
Representatives of the Pennsylvania Office of the State Fire Commissioner said they are big supporters of Frantz’s efforts and the Danville Fire Club.
Fire Services Technical Advisor Scott Topping said he has been a volunteer since he was 14 years old and a member of the fire service for more than 30 years.
“Juniors are the lifeblood of the fire service,” Topping said. “Eric is going to save the fire service.”
As for what’s to come, Frantz said he is working to get firefighting classes into the Danville Area High School for students to take throughout their school day.
An entry-level firefighter needs about 200 hours of training, Frantz explained.
“A lot of the kids that are taking classes for firefighting are doing it in the evenings and weekends,” Frantz said. “It’s a big ask because of all their other commitments, homework, jobs ... so having it during school would really be ideal.”
Frantz said module one classes could be available for Danville Area students as soon as January.
For the 2025-2026, Frantz said he is working on setting on a co-op for high school seniors to spend three periods a school day taking firefighting classes. The co-op would allow students to graduate with 200 hours of trainer, firefighter one, firefighter two, tele-communicator one, tele-communicator two, vehicle rescue and EMT certifications.
“We’re hopeful that we can make that happen,” Frantz said.
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