Training levels rise as volunteer firefighter numbers drop
Years ago, a whistle at the fire station alerted firefighters to a call.
Ron Steele, who has worked at Slippery Rock Fire Department for 58 years, remembers those days.
Now there are a variety of ways firefighters can be reached when a fire strikes, from instant-messaging smart phone apps alerting their owners of a blaze to radio equipment strapped to belt buckles that blare tones.
“We get text messages, we get pagers that we wear, and the siren still blows,” Steele said.
As in many industries, technology has been a catalyst in how firefighting has evolved.
Steele was 17 when he became a volunteer for the Slippery Rock Fire Department in the 1950s.
“When I joined, we wore rubber boots and rubber coats ... Now the equipment we have to outfit somebody costs about $2,000 to $3,000 per person,” he said. “I've fought fires with a red bandanna across my mouth.”
The gear firefighters wear, the equipment they use to snuff out a fire, the communications they use — it's all continually improving in quality and efficiency, said Kevin Boozel, president of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association.
“The equipment has 100 times improved,” Boozel said. “Before they wore rubber boots and some sort of a filter to filter out the smoke. Now you can handle high, intense heat rates and not feel it until it's on you.”
The amount of classroom and hands-on training for firefighters has also changed. Typically, at least 30 hours of training is required each year for returning firefighters.
“That's a pretty high level. That's pretty much a week's worth of work,” Boozel said. “The level of training that's expected in the department has truly increased.”
Other things have changed, too. Fire departments once set structures on fire in a controlled environment for practice. Other times, they built simple structures to burn.“We probably took a couple weeks ahead of time, during the week,” Steele said, of building structures to burn.While today's specialised burn buildings can be burned again and again, in training it's still not the same as fighting an actual structural fire, which was how firefighters used to get a lot of their hands-on training, Boozel said.“The integrity of that building is 10 times what a regular house would be. So you don't have to worry about the collapse zones, and things like that,”Boozel said. “I don't want to say they get complacent, but they don't think the same at training facilities as they would at a real house.”
Now things are much more efficient, since they usually utilize the burn building at Butler County Community College's Public Safety building. That building has been burned hundreds of times since the public safety building opened in 2002.Firefighter training in the county takes place mainly at BC3 and Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company. There are also resources for college students at Slippery Rock University.The BC3 Public Safety facility is a unique resource in the region. Only a handful of other facilities provide such extensive training opportunities.The area is equipped with more than a dozen training stations, from 500-gallon propane tanks and tanker trucks to cars, railroad areas and gas wells. They're all situations that can be fire simulated.On one weekday morning, two firefighters practiced igniting a hollowed out vehicle. Most fires at the training facility are started with propane.“Fire in the hole!” one yells, before a 10-foot diameter fireball is emitted in front of them.During the past 13 years, more stations have been added based on relevance in the community and business and industry demands.“It's business and industry that keeps us afloat,” said Bill O'Brien, vice president for continuing education at BC3. “The more business and industry training we can do, the more free training we can do for our firefighters because most of our firefighters in Butler County and in Western Pennsylvania are volunteers.“The last thing you want them to do is shell out tons of money for the training when they're volunteering their time. So what we do is try to provide the training at the lowest cost possible.”The Calumet Penreco refinery in Petrolia, T.W. Phillips Gas, and II-VI Inc. in Saxonburg are a few of the companies that have used BC3's facility.Firefighters can also use its three-story burn building to simulate structure fires.Tom Sweesy, assistant public safety coordinator at BC3, said the more training opportunities there are available, the more prepared firefighters will be.“We, as firefighters, don't all come in and say, 'Hey, I know it all today.' You just keep gaining knowledge all the time,” Sweesy said.
The college also has played a role in encouraging young people to consider firefighting. Volunteer shortages have been an ongoing issue, despite all of the improved equipment and training. Forty years ago, there were about 300,000 volunteer firefighters statewide. Now, there are about 50,000.For the first time, up to 12 volunteer firefighters can receive $1,000 scholarships for any of their studies at the college. More than $260,000 in funds were raised to establish the endowed scholarship thanks to a countywide fundraising project spearheaded by the Cranberry Township Community Chest.Five BC3 students were awarded the scholarship this fall.Another $65,000 was used to buy two state-of-the-art fire safety trailers to be used for fire education in the county; one to be stationed on BC3's campus and the other at the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Co.Cranberry resources
The Cranberry trailer replaces one the fire department used for more than 20 years. The fire education program typically schedules more than 100 events per year, touching more than 7,000 people.“We're booked all the way to the end of October, just about every day,” said Mark Nanna, fire department administrative assistant.The Cranberry department also opened a training facility in November 2012 that includes a four-story smoke tower with a full sprinkler and standpipe system. The tower also has a one-story smoke maze with movable walls.The Butler County Fire Chiefs Association, the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy and BC3 use the facility in Cranberry, as do police and EMS workers.Nanna estimates it is used at least two or three times a week, with 200 plus workers using it each month.S.R. undergradsSRU has had a safety management undergraduate program for more than 30 years, said Joseph Cali, safety management department chair. About 480 are enrolled in the safety management program.The training at SRU provides a foundation for students entering a variety of careers
.“We prepare students to be safety professionals. Then they'll go work for manufacturing plants, construction, retail, insurance, hospitals,” Cali said.There are some hands-on equipment training opportunities at the school too, including construction and industry equipment, fall protection, scaffolding and a lab with hazardous materials equipment.There's also a state-of-the-art fire lab equipped with a sprinkler system, hazardous material suits and other firefighter gear, for when students take a class entitled Comprehensive Emergency Management and Fire Services, Cali said.There is also a repelling tower on campus that the BCFCA utilizes, usually training firefighters in training to walk up and down steps with heavy hoses and equipment, or to practice repelling down the side of a building.OverviewDespite the help from BC3 to attract new firefighters to the job. Boozel still has concerns about the lack of volunteers. That, in turn, affects the atmosphere at fire stations.Most firefighters are relatively new or have been on the job for decades. There isn't much midlevel experience, he said.“The older firemen would talk about how the fire department was really their social area. They went and hung out and did things, barbecues and did stuff like that,” Boozel said.“The familial status that was kind of built before has really disintegrated to the point of we just make calls together because you're so busy,” Boozel said.However, once firefighters start, many fall in love with the profession.“My dad belonged, my uncle belonged. Once it's in your blood, you keep on going,” Steele said.
