Fire department mergers ahead

A Uniontown councilman's suggestion that the city might need to disband its paid fire department has set off a fiery debate in the town.

It's one that David Eckman has heard before -- should cities in economic distress pay firefighters when the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania municipalities rely on volunteers?

"When you are looking at the blight and the obvious results of a slowdown in the economy, that doesn't seem to me ... that is the time to cut the resources that are protecting the very fragile tax base that does exist," said Eckman, president of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association.

"The more blight that you have, you're at a much higher risk for fire and vandalism, and that's when you ought to be beefing up your resources, not the other way around," he said.

But he and others believe the debate is heading in the wrong direction. With fewer and fewer volunteers, some companies are starting to pay members just to get the trucks out.

"The questions that need to be asked are what level of protection do we need? ... How do we go about doing that, and how can we do it on a regional basis?" said Eckman, a professional firefighter in York County.

Pennsylvania has 23 paid fire departments and 71 departments with paid and volunteer firefighters. The rest -- 2,289 -- are volunteer departments.

Paychecks matter

Cities such as Aliquippa, McKeesport, Jeannette, Connellsville, Washington, Uniontown, New Kensington and the town of Mt. Lebanon all rely on paid firefighters in some way.

But their services often come under scrutiny, mainly when finances are tight.

Earlier this year, Uniontown Councilman Marlin Sprouts suggested that the city might have to disband its paid department because of the city's bleak financial picture. That set off a debate in town that has landed on radio talk shows.

Sprouts, who recently pleaded guilty in federal court to his part in a mortgage scam, did not return a call for comment on this story.

But fire Chief Myron Nypaver said there are many reasons why the city needs its 13 paid firefighters to complement a volunteer crew of about 30.

Nypaver said Uniontown has fire protection challenges -- a high elderly population and 32 buildings that are at least four stories tall. Yet the department can respond anywhere in town in three minutes or less.

Nypaver said such a response time is harder for volunteer departments to meet because volunteers often aren't available.

"It's a known trend that many of the departments have to run three and four departments together to have enough firefighters at the scene," he said.

People can't get away from their jobs to fight a fire like they used to. And the amount of training firefighters need -- a minimum of 250 hours -- makes many people balk, Nypaver said.

The number of volunteer firefighters in the state is in sharp decline, from 300,000 in 1976 to 72,000 in 2005, according to the Governor's Center for Local Government Services.

Not a luxury

For Aliquippa City Manager Tom Stoner, a paid fire department is not a luxury but a necessity.

"If we had 40 volunteer firemen who were well-trained and had their fire certification and their EMT certification, then I might consider looking at another option, but right now it's difficult to get volunteers," he said.

So the Beaver County city relies on its nine paid firefighters who offer round-the-clock protection. Only one volunteer responded to one fire call in 2007.

Without the paid department, Stoner said, the city wouldn't be able to protect its buildings or its residents.

"It comes down to in an emergency situation not only losing what we have (in property) but someone losing a life," he said.

Thomas Savage III, executive director of the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute, said more volunteer companies are paying members to be on station so there's someone to get the fire truck out.

"When you don't find people to do the work, if you believe you still need fire service protection, you need to hire people to do that," he said.

That's happened in South Union, just outside Uniontown, where the fire department has two paid members who cover the station during daylight hours.

"We just got to the point where it's just tough because everybody works," said fire Chief Adam Buchheit.

The township and fire company share the payroll. They are thinking of adding a third paid position to their roster of around 30 active volunteers.

And Buchheit said if his department can't make it without some paid firefighters, Uniontown never could.

"They have a lot of old buildings," he said. "I couldn't see anyway in the world they could do that."

Greensburg Fire Chief Ed Hutchinson agrees.

While Greensburg is a third-class city with an all-volunteer department, Hutchinson believes that paid departments cannot successfully become volunteer ones.

"Today, that would be an impossibility for anyone that has a paid fire department to go volunteer," he said. "It's impossible."

He said Greensburg makes its volunteer department work because the city pays for major equipment as well as the fire stations. In addition, the company has been all-volunteer for 200 years.

"We had time to build," he said. "We had time to get money."

The debate over paid departments may spread to Jeannette.

Earlier this year, Councilman John Busato was asked about the city's paid department during a public meeting. He replied that he didn't know if the city could afford it.

Busato declined to comment on his statement when contacted last week.

Jeannette fire Chief Mike Bertolino said he's heard talk for years about eliminating his paid department, which includes three full-time firefighters and 30 part-timers who are paid per call or work one night shift a week.

Bertolino said the department, which answered about 700 calls last year, operates on a budget of $287,000.

"The sooner you can get to an incident, the sooner you can resolve the problem," Bertolino said. "With a paid department, someone's always going to respond."

Both Bertolino and Nypaver added that the confined spaces of city neighborhoods mean fires can spread faster and take out several buildings quickly.

"When you need a fire truck, you need it now. You need an ambulance, you need it now. ... and we're able to provide that," Nypaver said.

Uniontown's fire department's budget last year was $672,000, Nypaver said, although the department does the building inspections and offsets their expenditures with that revenue.

Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike said he'll work hard to keep the city's paid fire department.

"I do think it's one of our shining stars," he said.

Eckman realizes the economic pressures are great. That's why he advocates regionalizing fire companies.

It's happening where he works now. His department in Springettsbury, York County, is merging with one in Spring Garden to form what might be the state's first regional fire department.

The new department will include a paid and volunteer element and eventually may include other nearby municipalities.

"We think it is high time in Pennsylvania that we really start taking a look at providing this vital public service on a much larger scale than just every little town, every city having their own department," Eckman said.