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Fire alarm: What's next?

Nationwide, volunteer fire departments are seeking solutions to improve service while maintaining their traditions

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | STAFF WRITER

November 20, 2005

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When talk turns to changing the way Long Island's fire service protects its 2.7 million residents, the debate is often cast in extremes: It's either keep the all-volunteer system just as it is, or replace the whole thing with paid, unionized firefighters and send taxes through the roof.

But across the United States, places like Long Island have found ways to improve service and preserve their traditions with less expensive steps.

In suburban Philadelphia, Whitpain Township hired four career firefighter/emergency medical technicians four years ago to backstop their volunteers during busy daytime hours.

Outside of Bellingham, Wash., volunteers in Whatcom County Fire District No. 2 work shifts at the firehouse on weekends and holidays to ensure engines leave within a minute of an alarm.

In the Washington, D.C., suburbs, 19 once-independent departments in Montgomery County, Md., operate under a county fire chief who decides where firehouses should be built and how many trucks are needed. When someone in Chevy Chase dials 911, a county dispatcher sends the nearest available engine, staffed by paid and volunteer firefighters, regardless of which department's territory the fire is in.

All are attempts to cope with the relentless turnover, weekday shortages of emergency workers and burgeoning ambulance calls that have put pressure on volunteers everywhere.

"Much of the volunteer fire service across the United States is currently in crisis," an International Association of Fire Chiefs report concluded last year. " ... Many volunteer departments in more populated areas are in a state of crisis and face a deep-seated struggle to provide adequate services."

Long Island is the last densely populated region in America served almost exclusively by volunteers, but the system here is showing signs of strain.

Though they are among the best-funded, best-trained and best-equipped in the nation, fire departments here are falling prey to many of the same problems that have plagued agencies nationwide.

"Was the volunteer fire service ever designed to do what Long Island fire departments are doing right now? I don't think so," said Gil Hanse, Babylon Town's director of emergency preparedness and a longtime volunteer.

"We're like a city. With the amount of people that we have and the service we're expected to provide, has it become a burden? Yes."

While almost three-quarters of country's fire departments are all-volunteer, they protect only 22.8 percent of the population because they are almost exclusively found in communities smaller than 25,000 people, according to a 2003 report by the National Fire Protection Association. More than a third of the nation's population -- including Long Beach and Garden City -- is protected by "combination" departments, staffed by a mix of paid and volunteer firefighters.

The number of all-paid agencies has steadily grown, protecting 45 percent of U.S. residents.

In its efforts to keep up, Long Island's more than $319 million-a-year volunteer system has become so expensive -- three times per resident what it costs for other Northeastern volunteer systems -- that some of its most loyal members and some local officials are saying it's time to take a hard look at where things are headed.

"We know the volunteers are fantastic and we're grateful and value their service," said Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. "We know there's a problem and there's no proposed solution. ... We can't be afraid to talk about this stuff just because it's never been talked about before."

Nassau Assessor Harvey Levinson talks about changing state law to fund volunteer departments through townwide taxes, which would even out tax rates and give towns some measure of supervision over fire spending.

"The whole system is flawed and has to be changed," he said.

Stewart Manor Mayor Joseph Troiano wonders whether it's time to consolidate some departments.

"Someone once told me in a budget hearing that you can't put a price on safety," he said. "I said, 'You have to put a price on everything. Nobody gets a blank check.'"

Melville commissioners are investigating adding paid firefighters, while Terryville has begun calculating how much it might cost to "buddy up" with neighboring districts to hire fire crews. And the Jericho Fire District has gone so far as to build sleeping quarters into its new firehouse.