Volunteer Shortage in Va. Threatens Emergency Services

Sept. 23--A thinning in the ranks of regional volunteer fire and rescue squads has prompted concern among public safety officials in the Roanoke Valley, mirroring a national trend that poses serious implications for local volunteer efforts to respond to 911 calls.

At the surface, the numbers look pretty dire. But peel away the layers and an even bleaker reality comes into view. As smaller squads grapple with a growing call volume, they also weigh the effects of an underlying cultural shift, one that threatens to disrupt long-held traditions in volunteer stations.

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Chief Rick Burch already has seen the effects on his own department. In his most recent presentation to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, Burch reported numbers that show an eroding volunteer staff and little sign things will change.

Since 2007, the chief has watched the number of rescue calls in Roanoke County go up by 24 percent, and fire calls increase by almost 9 percent.

According to national figures, squads answer twice the calls they did in the 1980s, and the average volunteer drops out of the service after fewer than five years. Stations in Botetourt, Franklin and Bedford counties don't fare much better, according to firefighters, officials and the numbers they provided.

"We've got a great first string, but there's nobody on the bench," said Billy Ferguson, Franklin County's public safety chief of operations. "It's not just getting living, breathing bodies. It's getting living, breathing qualified folks."

Experts estimate 70 percent of the country's firefighters belong to volunteer units, a historically low number that shows no sign of breaking its downward pace. In many places, including Roanoke County and surrounding jurisdictions, the number of people leaving the volunteer service exceeds the number of new recruits. Those who do leave most often cite a "lack of time" and "moving out of the area" for their decisions, Burch said.

Area chiefs pin much of the blame on the struggling economy, which has drawn local purse strings tight, preventing some localities from injecting paid personnel into volunteer stations and has forced some volunteers to leave their communities in search of work.

Up against the numbers

Since 1984, the number of volunteer firefighters nationally dropped by 14 percent, according to research by the National Volunteer Fire Council. The call volume has more than doubled in that time, coinciding with a precipitous rise in required training hours for volunteers.

Kimberly Quiros, a spokeswoman for the council, estimated that volunteers save taxpayers close to $129 billion a year, and that in tight times, communities don't have the capital to start funded stations. With such a huge swath of the country covered by volunteers, Quiros said the importance of those squads won't likely diminish.

Each community will have a different experience, she said.

In Roanoke County, the Read Mountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department is hurting the most. Burch, who is a resident of that community, lives there knowing that if his house caught fire or he needed medical attention, he might not see a Read Mountain unit respond.

In 2011, 77 percent of Read Mountain's 386 dispatched rescue calls into Roanoke County were answered by other stations. Vinton answered 60 percent of those. Combined, North County and full-time Roanoke city personnel answered 13 percent. Burch said those figures cause much anxiety for the department, which is tasked with responding to the broad range of calamitous events that seep into everyday life.

The Read Mountain station exemplifies a larger problem for the county: reaching response time goals.

For a person experiencing a heart attack, Burch said emergency workers try to respond within six minutes. Any longer increases the chance of brain damage and other complications, he said.

In 2001, the board of supervisors set a goal to respond to advanced life support calls within that time frame, 80percent of the time. Ten years later, the chief reported rescue workers reached that goal only 46 percent of the time.

The lack of volunteers exacerbates that problem among all the county's stations. In Cave Spring, rescue crews are down to one ambulance. The Fort Lewis station also lacks the staffing and ambulances it needs to work its calls most effectively, Burch said.

Read Mountain is shared by Roanoke and Botetourt counties, and 60 percent of the station's calls go into the latter. And while its response numbers are gloomy, they're brighter than other stations in Botetourt County.

According to 2011 statistics, not one of Botetourt County's seven rescue squads responded to more than 75 percent of its own calls. The Buchanan squad answered 17 percent of its dispatches. The Troutville squad answered 16 percent.

Officials blame those numbers on lack of manpower, but a closer inspection shows a heavy load of training expected from each medic worsens the problem.

The training burden

Botetourt County Emergency Services Director Carr Boyd pointed to the hoops that new volunteers must leap through before they can begin working.

"Getting volunteers to serve on fire departments and rescue squads is becoming incredibly challenging," Boyd said.

It's a problem unfamiliar to many other public sector volunteers, he added.

"The effort it takes to be a serviceable fire or rescue volunteer is just unmatched by any other type of volunteerism there is," Boyd said. "If you stand volunteers against career workers, we expect them to do the same exact thing at the exact same level. It's almost insane, if you think about it, the expectations we place on them."

Training requirements for firefighters have increased as a result of technological advancement and safety research. As several officials said, the push to be more effective and more efficient has led to more training -- and the rescue squads experienced the same results.

"All the sudden we're cutting you loose with narcotics, starting IVs, shooting morphine into people and defibrillation," Boyd said. "We're doing things that you'd only see in hospitals, and out in rainy ditches and houses. It takes ongoing training to maintain those skill sets."

For 12 years, 28-year-old Chris Chesson kept abreast of those skills and requirements, working his way up the Read Mountain ranks to become a young volunteer chief. This summer, Chesson joined the count of those relinquishing their roles as volunteers. For him, it was to take on new work in Ohio.

Chesson started as a teenager. But today, with the majority of people leaving the volunteer ranks after less than five years of service, he's an anomaly. Chesson blames the economy, but also bemoans an increase in rescue calls that weren't common a decade ago. Those calls have now become the norm and strain already diminished forces with around-the-clock calls.

"We see now, more than ever, calls for basic flulike symptoms or abdominal pains," he said.

And in Botetourt County, where the seven squads serve a population of about 32,000 people across 548 square miles, a minor call can keep a crew busy for more than an hour.

"Your perception of an emergency is different from your neighbor's," Boyd said. "If you're sitting at your house and you don't have funds or medical care, then you do depend on 911."

In Franklin County, where Ferguson reported gaining the same number of volunteers that they lose each year (roughly 200), retaining volunteers is a top priority.

Attrition in Bedford County, where the number of volunteers has dropped by almost 18percent since 2007, reflects that of its neighbor, although some relief came to that county as the number of fire and rescue calls declined in that time span.

Because of an outdated computer system, Bedford authorities were unable to provide a breakdown of how many dispatched calls each of their stations answered.

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, the number of volunteer firefighters dropped from 825,450 in 2007 to 768,150 three years later. Quiros attributed part of that drop to a cultural shift. Local authorities said they think the decline in rescue volunteers could also be related.

"It used to be a family thing," Quiros said. "It's not as generational anymore, it's not quite as much a sure thing. People aren't feeling as much duty to join their fire department and stay with it."

Chesson, who joined after he turned 16, said he watched many people come and go during his tenure at Read Mountain.

"I think it all comes back to what brought you into it in the first place," he said. "For me, I enjoy fighting fire. I enjoy being able to help people at a vehicle accident, or someone with a heart attack."

Attempts at adapting

The cultural and volunteer shifts have become apparent to local volunteer chiefs during the past several years, sparking efforts aimed at attracting and retaining members. Hollins Volunteer Rescue Chief Jeff Edwards said his station revamped its website to emphasize the need for volunteers.

In addition, Hollins volunteers have given presentations at EMT training seminars, where they hope to draw the attention of people with a predisposed interest in the field.

"When we go out to do public service events, I take banners and put them on the side of the ambulance," Edwards said. "If we go out to eat, I try to park the ambulance strategically, to get views."

In 2010, the federal Department of Homeland Security awarded a grant of about $900,000 to the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association.

The money paid for studies in two areas: a Geographic Information System method of recruiting for 10 departments, and a traditional method of recruitment for 10 others. Roanoke County was in the latter group, and the money was used for marketing materials, including a video, fliers, posters and banners with the same message: "Do you have what it takes?"

In exchange, Roanoke County must submit annual reports to the chiefs association, which will in turn compile a report to be submitted to the federal government this December.

"Some jurisdictions worked harder than others," said Jimmy Carter, the association's executive director. "Some picked up a few or none, others did really well. Roanoke County has done a very good job."

Carter said his organization just received word they've received a second federal grant to continue the study, though it's not decided whether Roanoke County will benefit directly.

When he considers the challenges facing his department, Burch said he's reminded of the strength he finds across all the stations.

"We have some very, very dedicated individuals that give more than 110 percent," he said. "They've done things that other people won't do."

He offered several examples. Christmas parties missed, Thanksgiving dinners skipped to respond to tragedies.

"That's a tough job," he said.

Richard Flora, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and former Hollins volunteer, said he's watched as the number of volunteers dropped over the past 30 years.

"Times have changed, training requirements are much greater than they used to be, and it's just burdensome," Flora said. "I don't think they'll ever loosen back up. I think where it's going is it's going to paid staff, and that's not good for rural localities."

The supervisor said it's incumbent upon local governments to ensure adequate service is provided to communities, and those governments will have to find ways to attract volunteers.

"They can give them their county decals, they could create some form of minimal retirement based on years of service," he suggested. "Those are some of the creative things they??re going to have to do to keep people wanting to volunteer."

As chief of the busiest rescue squad in the Roanoke County system, Edwards said he stresses for volunteers to take time to support one another at and away from work. Sometimes he visits the station on his night off, he said. The camaraderie is key.

"I hope that it becomes different," he said. "I've tried to be creative. I've been here since 2006 and I've been a volunteer since 1982. I've seen the coming and going."

Copyright 2012 - The Roanoke Times, Va.