Being a fire and EMS person for many years, I read with great interest the Eagle’s two-part article on fire service (“A crisis of their own” Dec. 2-3). I am sorry to say the second installment did not give a clear picture of fire and EMS services in northern Butler County and adjacent counties.

The municipalities we serve are small rural communities. None has the financial means to take over the financial obligation of a fire department and equipment and remove the burden of fund-raising from the volunteer members.

In fact, not all municipalities are willing to put in place a fire mileage tax on property owners. In the municipal codes of the state of Pennsylvania, a municipality is charged with providing for the safety and well being of its residences. Providing fire protection is one of these provisions. The state realizes there is a cost associated with this and permits the governing body to impose this tax. A tax of up to 3 mills may be placed on property value. The fire services in the north still struggle to get the fire tax in place. In some areas, the fire services have approached the supervisors or council members of their municipalities. The fire services were told, no, you need to do more fund-raising, apply for more grants and not ask us to put a tax on property owners.

I have even been told by some township supervisors that they will not put a fire tax in place because it could cost them their job in the next election. So, we must work harder to raise money with fewer people.

The fire service over the years has asked for a tax credit to help with recruitment and retention of personnel. Legislation passed in 2016 permits municipalities to give tax credits to active fire and EMS personnel. You may have read in the Eagle that this tax credit was approved in townships starting in southern Butler County to just north of the state Route 422 line. So far, when fire departments in the north approach their municipalities about the tax credit, they have been told they were are still reviewing the information. No tax credits in the north yet.

Several of the departments have young personnel who joined while still in high school. They are now taking classes at Butler County Community College — furthering their education while working and running calls with their departments. It would be a nice incentive for them if they could get a cost reduction at our community college as long as they stay active and attend BC3. This would be a great local incentive to help all departments.

Training requirements are a large issue in the fire service. Who doesn’t want to be safe at their job? But the training requirement of 180 to 200 hours to just get started is a lot to ask of anyone. Yes, the state has broken the training into four modules, but 180 hours is still 180 hours. You can find departments where a person in their late 20s has joined to help, but has left before completion of training because they just can’t give that many hours with work and family demands. Some of the departments have set aside the 180- to 200-hour training program and have said that “we will train you to be a firefighter in our station.” They are covering basic equipment and firefighting tasks in their departments. The new member is soon put to work assisting other members and helping at calls. As the person shows more interest and state training classes become available, the member will be sent to certified training. If this will let us keep and train that person as we go along, then we win.

Response time

We have all heard the one about the tree falling unheard in the woods and whether it makes a noise. I have no idea — but it still falls down. Well, let’s try if you have a fire at your residence and the fire department doesn’t respond; does your house still burn down?

You did not read this in the two-part article about fire service, but the departments in the north are desperate in the daylight hours. Only our university town in Slippery Rock has live-ins. The rest of us have no such thing. There is no one lounging in plush chairs waiting for a call. We don’t even have the chairs.

During a large portion of the daylight time in one department, a truck will not respond from the station, unless the chief leaves work to respond. Other departments might be alerted two times and then respond later to the call when a driver or personnel arrive at the station. That’s why three to five departments are dispatched to the same call. Some are slow to respond. Some bring two firefighters. Some might have four. It takes that many departments to get a working crew in the daytime.

I felt the main point of the two-part article was that we need more funding. I asked the chiefs from nine departments if it was lack of funding or lack of personnel that is causing response problems. Seven responded that they always need funding, but the lack of a driver or personnel is No. 1. Two responded that it is hard to tell the difference when you have to wait for a fund-raiser to pay the bill for truck inspection and repairs.

Mergers

The merging of fire departments is one of the state’s suggestions for addressing some of our problems. Mergers have worked well in the southern part of the county and Butler Township. All of these merging departments were close to each other in the case of Butler Township, and all of the departments were receiving money from the same township. In the north, we have two areas where departments are two miles apart and merger could be an option. It will be a while, however, as the mind-set has to change.

For the rest of the departments that are five and seven miles apart, we speak of merger, but how? Who gives up a station in their town to form one department?

Do we build a new station halfway between the two, and members can drive both directions from their town to get the fire truck and drive back to their areas where the emergency is? This just doesn’t seem to be the answer at this time.

Regional fire service

We have been talking about another idea. Three paid daylight personnel and one Class A engine located midway along Route 38 in the north. These three firefighters would respond to all calls in the north in the daytime. In the time it takes the local department where the emergency is located to leave their station, this engine and three firefighters could be on the scene or close in most communities in the north. The local fire departments would then assist these firefighters.

The big question is: who pays? Would it only be the municipalities or would the county help?

I fear that something tragic happens before this happens. When I talked to the chiefs of the nine departments, two responded, “Please don’t make it seem that we don’t need funding. The community will stop supporting our fundraisers, but the truth is, money is much easier to obtain with hard work than finding and keeping qualified personnel.”

Reid Campbell is a captain of the West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department and was chief for more than 30 years.