Calling out for volunteer firefighters

By David Pepose, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Updated: 01/27/2009 09:56:00 AM EST

Tuesday, January 27
LANESBOROUGH — In the face of dwindling recruitment, the state's volunteer firefighters are pushing to drive up their membership.

After receiving a $291,600 federal grant, the Massachusetts Call/Volunteer Firefighters Association will be holding recruitment meetings throughout the first half of February.

"(The goal is) to help the area departments boost their memberships," said MCVFA Region 5 Vice President Paul Vallone. "Dalton is down to 32 members — I'm hoping we can try to get these departments up to 45 members."

According to MCVFA statistics, only 45 percent of Massachusetts firefighters are volunteers, compared to 75 percent nationwide. Yet Vallone said that volunteer recruitment is more important than people realize, as all but two fire departments in Berkshire County are comprised entirely of volunteers.

"Some are EMTs, and some work directly with the fire departments, but all of them have a full-time job that go along with what is, in essence, a full-time job with no compensation," said State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield. "There is no way to overemphasize the importance of volunteer firefighters in the Berkshires as well as the whole of Western Massachusetts."

Vallone said the last recruit for local firefighting was inducted over the summer. "I think a lot of people, with the economy being the way it is, are making decisions to put food on the table and to spend
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more time with their families," he said. "People are stepping down from their positions, and that's where we're losing our members."

To solve this attrition, the MCVFA will be having workshops to teaching fire chiefs and department staff to recruit new volunteers and EMTs. Dr. Bill Jenaray, a 30-year veteran volunteer firefighter and CEO of Emergency Services Education & Consulting Group, will head the workshops.

The MCVFA has also taken steps to saturate the Western Massachusetts media market by filming a public service announcement at the Lanesborough Fire Department. The ad, Vallone said, is set to be released in March.

Despite his recruitment woes, Vallone said that the MCVFA provides a crucial service to Berkshire County. "As a volunteer firefighter you're helping your community — when the bell sounds or your pager sounds, you're putting your life on the line to help your community," he said. "It gets harder and harder to help each other out, that's why we're doing this recruitment drive to build up these departments again.