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Fire alarm: The perks

Caribbean training trips, pension benefits, members-only parks, 10-course banquets -- perks are plentiful for firefighters

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | STAFF WRITER

November 16, 2005

In 1998, it was a seminar on terrorism awareness in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the Carnival cruise ship "Ecstasy." This year it was north to Alaska aboard "The Spirit" for another seminar.

And three years in between, the Fire Chiefs' Council of Suffolk County chose to do its training by the pink sands of the Bahamas.

Every October from 2002 to 2004, chiefs and commissioners jetted off to four-day training seminars at the Radisson Cable Beach resort. After spending each morning learning about building codes, national fire standards and incident command, many of them adjourned to the main pool to enjoy complimentary drinks with their wives at the swim-up bar under the hot Caribbean sun.

At other times, they were able to take advantage of the all-inclusive resort's amenities: golf on the hotel course, windsurfing on the private beach, meals at one of the six restaurants, karaoke at Islands Bar, late-night dancing at the Goombay Lounge.

Taxpayers footed the bill for some of the chiefs and commissioners at a cost of up to $325 a night plus air fare and conference fees.

"It's training for you and a little vacation ... If you make the experience pleasant, they tend to pay attention more in class," said Greg Anderson, the former Nesconset chief who helped lead two of the Bahamas trips and said he didn't attend at taxpayer expense.

Reaping the benefits

Long Island volunteers have become known in fire circles for the remarkable breadth of the perks they receive. Trips in the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean, sometimes for training, sometimes for pleasure. Ten-course annual banquets. Firehouse rec rooms with fully stocked bars. Tournament racing teams with costly high-performance vehicles. Members-only parks, pools, docks, party rooms and picnic pavilions.

"They have more money than they have stuff to buy," said Bill McGreevy, an assistant chief in the upstate Wilmington Fire District.

Paid for with taxes, donations from the public and 2 percent surcharges on most fire insurance policies, those benefits come on top of the various "recruitment and retention incentives" that lawmakers have worked to expand at a time when volunteer numbers nationally continue a steady decline. Those include pension benefits, supplemental life insurance policies, tax breaks, tuition aid, fee waivers at government-owned parks, beaches and golf courses, and discretionary grants from benevolent associations.

While some volunteer leaders eschew the more expensive trips and lavish meals, even they say that it's shortsighted for the public to begrudge volunteers small rewards for the hours upon hours they give to protect their neighbors.

"When people just come in here berating us about, in my opinion, small amounts of money that we're supposedly wasting, I have to ask: What do I give that kid here -- a jacket?" said James McCann, president of Roslyn Highlands Fire Company. " ... Always keep in mind for the fire service that you have to make it attractive to them. You have to give them something."

Volunteers shoulder burden

Yet the number of volunteers has remained stagnant at about 20,000 on Long Island for a decade as incentives have increased.

Carroll Buracker, a Virginia consultant who has advised dozens of Northeastern fire departments, said more stringent training requirements in the age of the two-career family "have placed enormous burdens on volunteers."

"I don't believe that perks or incentives will necessarily satisfy the public-safety requirements as it relates to fire or EMS," he said.

Many Long Island fire officials, like Roslyn's McCann, contend that the fringe benefits are scant compensation for the lost sleep, missed holidays and countless hours they donate to their communities.

Taxpayers "don't see the individual sacrifices that people have made throughout their lives," he said. "All those personal sacrifices are really money that you have saved the taxpayers."

But some firefighters say they are embarrassed by some of the spending.

"I think when you volunteer to do a job, you volunteer -- you don't do it for the benefits," said Anthony Frangipane, a Middle Island volunteer who has been repeatedly disciplined after bitter arguments with the fire commission. "Everybody wants something these days."