Delaware fire companies sound alarm about membership

Low number of volunteers leads General Assembly task force to recommend changes

By Craig Anderson
Posted 6/14/21

LITTLE CREEK — As membership trended downward six to seven years ago, Little Creek Volunteer Fire Co. leadership opted to aggressively seek out new manpower.

“We decided to go into recruiting mode all the time,” Chief Scott Bundek said.

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Delaware fire companies sound alarm about membership

Low number of volunteers leads General Assembly task force to recommend changes

Posted

LITTLE CREEK — As membership trended downward six to seven years ago, Little Creek Volunteer Fire Co. leadership opted to aggressively seek out new manpower.

“We decided to go into recruiting mode all the time,” Chief Scott Bundek said.

That meant constantly spreading the need for volunteers through word of mouth, utilizing a sign out front that perpetually offers the opportunity to join and pushing the message through social media.

While new additions “come in ebbs and flows, we found the approach to be fairly successful,” Chief Bundek said.

Of 66 active members, six are 60 or older, while about 12 are 40 to 60. There are nine members under 20, and the others are between 21 and 39.

According to Chief Bundek, “The challenge is not about people aging out but life changes that can affect volunteers — changing a job, having a baby, relocating somewhere else.

“The important thing is finding how we can replace people quickly enough when those life changes do occur.”

Taking a look at its membership, company leaders determined that “we have a group of members who have been with the company for a long time and will stay there until they are not physically able,” Chief Bundek said.

“Then, you have a subset of members who may volunteer for four to five years before they move on to something else. Then, there are others who may take part for a few months and decide it’s not for them.”

As Seaford’s population has transitioned over the years to include more minorities, Jack Wilson, chief of the Seaford Volunteer Fire Department, said there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in a more diverse volunteer membership. There are currently four minority volunteers among the company’s 50 active members, along with just one woman. And reaching out to the minority communities during local events and through clergy hasn’t yielded the desired results, he said.

The majority of Seaford’s active membership ranges in age from about 21 to 33, Chief Wilson said. There’s a “big gap” between those in their mid-30s to 45, he said, with the rest of the responders coming from a pool of life members.

And more volunteers are needed — Seaford firefighters had responded to 373 calls for the year as of June 7, which would surpass a typical year of 750 to 780 calls if the pace continues.

Simply put, according to Chief Wilson, they “are really struggling to get volunteers.”

Seaford welcomed five new volunteers at the beginning of 2021, and three have since dropped.

“The time commitment that’s needed makes it tough to put in hours,” Chief Wilson said. “Besides responding to calls, there’s training hours, meetings, cleanups, things that take a good chunk of time.”

There’s no shortcut to becoming a fully trained firefighter. New Little Creek members must initially take part in a 24-hour orientation program within the company. That’s followed by 96 hours of core classes held on weekends at the Delaware State Fire School. Then, there’s ongoing training exercises at the firehouse, as well.

Third-generation firefighter Kenny Trice, 17, has dedicated the hours necessary to serve the Little Creek company but said not many people his age have shown an interest.

“There’s a few, not very many,” he said.

According to Kenny, generally speaking, any prospective member can expect “a very hard job.”

“It’s very demanding. There’s a lot of mental and physical stress, but you can easily overcome it.”

Carrying on a family tradition wasn’t a difficult choice, he added.

“The rest of my family is in the fire service, and I felt like continuing that legacy,” he said. “We all like to help each other and help others, and that’s how we’ve been raised.”

At one time, Chief Wilson said, a large portion of active members worked within blocks of the fire station and were able to respond quickly. Now, he said, many work outside the district. Members responding to calls can be “hit or miss,” he said, especially during the day, when just four to five firefighters may be available.

The company thus relies more frequently on support from nearby towns, like Bridgeville, Blades, Laurel, Georgetown and into Maryland.

“My biggest concern is that one of my firefighters gets killed, or an (emergency medical technician) or civilian dies in a situation we could have headed off with a more proactive or timely response,” he said.

Warren Jones, executive manager of the Delaware Volunteer Firefighter’s Association, said there’s reason for concern when it comes to companies being able to fill trucks in the future.

While the Delaware State Fire School in Dover instructed 408 new firefighters in 2009, only 189 were trained in 2019. Mr. Jones, who also is a member of the Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Co., described that as “the barometer I use” when it comes to determining how the volume of membership will stand years from now.

“I think the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time,” he said.

The Citizens’ Hose Co. No. 1 in Smyrna is already short-staffed, Lt. Brian Ferguson said, and challenges continue to grow in meeting the demand. Hundreds of new homes coming to the Smyrna area, as well as mixed-use and office buildings and the 69,000-square-foot KRM Flex Building in the Duck Creek Business Park mean more locations that could have fire and safety issues.

Mr. Jones pointed to companies in New Castle that are “hiring people to ride firetrucks full or part time,” including Hockessin, Five Points, Elsmere and Christiana.

Findings, recommendations

Recognition of dwindling participation prompted the General Assembly to create the Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment & Retention Task Force in 2019. The group, comprised of elected officials, firefighters and associated state government employees, met five times and released a report June 3.

The task force noted that in Delaware, 57% of fire departments are mostly made up of volunteers and more than 40% are all-volunteer.

Task force recommendations included, in part:

  • The Delaware State Fire School should develop a class on recruitment and retention. Discussions on recruitment should focus on all aspects of the hiring process from marketing and first contact to the firefighter’s induction. The retention portion of the course should focus on mentoring, monitoring and communication at a minimum. This class should be presented to the volunteer fire companies’ administrators, membership committees and recruiters.
  • An AmeriCorps program should be established through the Department of Health and Social Services’ Office of Volunteerism. The program would consist of full-time AmeriCorps members assigned to each county. They would be assigned to companies based on call volume and geographic considerations. Each county government would cover the 24% match of the stipend for each AmeriCorps member in their county.
  • The state should add an extra training administrator to the Delaware State Fire School, who would manage the AmeriCorps programs and be responsible for recruiting in the state. Since the AmeriCorps members would need some fire service training, the fire school would be an ideal location for the program manager, who would also become a part of the DVFA Recruitment and Retention Committee.
  • The Sussex County Operation GEM program should be promoted in all public school districts through the Department of Education. The GEM program focuses on kids 10-15 years old. It involves an annual assembly and an after-school program. The AmeriCorps members would organize and manage the GEM program in each county.
  • The DVFA should pay for and administer the recruitment website and marketing promotions through its Partners in Progress program.
  • The city of Wilmington has the only fully career fire department in the state. The city, state legislators, City Council and County Council members should be encouraged to promote to the city’s youth the advantages of joining the New Castle County volunteer fire companies for firsthand knowledge of public safety fields. This would include promotion of the GEM program.
  • Delaware vocational high schools should offer public safety classes like firefighting, EMT and emergency medical response, etc., in their career and technical education programs.
  • Classes taught at the Delaware State Fire School should qualify for college credits. The fire school is a Pro Board-certified academy, as well as a National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians educational facility.
  • Tuition reimbursement should be offered to undergraduate and graduate students attending a university or college in the state, similar to the programs for law enforcement and the National Guard.
  • The state income tax credit should be increased to $1,000 for volunteer fire company members who donate a universal 100 hours of service to the company per year. Senate Concurrent Resolution 26 put the cost of volunteerism at $27.20 per hour.

Task force chair Rep. Larry Mitchell, D-Elsmere, a 52-year member of the fire service said, “I look (at) this as being very positive.

“It’s a move to provide more tools to the toolbox that will allow (companies) to do a better job with recruitment and bringing in younger members. It’s a great, great service, and we have to do everything we can to keep it from going away.”

According to Sen. Bruce Ennis, D-Smyrna, task force co-chair and a life member of Citizens’ Hose Co., “For over 200 years, the volunteer firefighter has served as Delaware’s first line of defense against the accidental and intentionally set fires that threaten the lives of neighbors and cause millions of dollars in property damage each year. Today, the wall that has protected Delaware families for generations is being threatened by apathy and neglect as our volunteer fire companies struggle to recruit new members and raise the public donations they depend on for their very survival.

“The plan put forward by this task force may not reverse the national trends that are causing volunteer fire departments to close across the country, but it will help to hold the line here in Delaware and hopefully even breathe new life into the public service organizations that have protected us for generations.”

There’s a dollars-and-cents value to vibrant fire companies, as well — an annual review by the state Office of Auditor of Accounts estimated they created a savings of approximately $244 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020.

State Auditor Kathy McGuiness pointed to the more than $6.9 million lawmakers provided to fire and ambulance companies in its grant-in-aid package last fiscal year and pushed for an independent fund “to extend the longevity of the volunteer fire service in Delaware.”

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