Theyโre the people communities rely on when disaster strikes, and the challenges are piling up for volunteer firefighters and others who answer the call. A Pennsylvania Senate discussion this week examined an ongoing crisis in recruiting and retaining emergency responders, as well as the financial challenges of making sure theyโre properly equipped.
โThe days of asking all our volunteers to go out and fundraise and do chicken barbecues and make $1,000, those days are over,โ said Jamie Rohrer, fire chief for the East Petersburg Fire Co. in Lancaster County. โThe people want to be with their community, be with their families and doing those things.โ
Solutions raised during the Senate Democratic Policy Committee roundtable, hosted by state Sen. Nick Miller on Wednesday in Lancasterโs Ephrata, included extending tax cuts to employers who permit workers to respond to emergency calls when theyโre on the clock and collaboration between emergency response departments on sharing equipment.
Miller, D-Lehigh/Northampton, is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 951 from state Sen. Frank Farry, R-Bucks, that would dedicate funding for community colleges to train police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other emergency personnel. โThereโs no silver bullet to this,โ said Miller, who was elected policy chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus in December. โAnd you know we really have to dedicate a lot of time and resources to figure this out because no pun intended, but itโs an emergency within our communities.โ
Ensuring the manpower is there to handle emergencies isnโt just a problem for volunteers. State Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said police departments are seeing only a handful of applicants for open positions. โThatโs a concern,โ he said. โAnd I think it makes it more thoughtful and more appropriate for folks that want to be a part of law enforcement and also part of our emergency response โ the activities that take place.โ
Part of that means reversing the perception built up over the past decade or so that police are villains, rather than the heroes that young kids aspire to be, said Northern Lancaster County Regional police Chief Josh Kilgore. He pointed to programs like the Pennsylvania State Police Camp Cadet that are important for positively influencing youth to join emergency service responders in the future. โPrograms like Camp Cadet are great, but why do kids want to go to the camps?โ Kilgore said. โDo they want to be there? So you have to create that want. โฆ It all starts at home. It starts with mom, dad โ theyโre the ones that have to plant a seed. Not everybody is fortunate to have that, so sometimes first responders can fill that role, and stuff like Camp Cadet is an opportunity to do that.โ
Ephrata police Chief Chris McKim said emergency response agencies need to reach tomorrowโs responders where they are today. He called for state support for a recruitment campaign on social media and entertainment-streaming services โ Hulu, Spotify, TikTok. โTheyโre not looking at billboards,โ he said, noting television or even Facebook arenโt cutting it with young people. โSo go to where they are. If I could snap my fingers, thatโs what Iโd love to see.โ
Trying to recruit with the same practices of decades past isnโt working, echoed East Hempfieldโs fire chief, John Kottmyer. โItโs a totally different avenue,โ he said, adding heโs sat down with some of the live-in recruits who stay at his station: โI said, โPoint blank, I want a frank conversation โฆ just be very blunt with me.โ I said, โIf I wanted to keep you here for five years, like really keep you here in this area, what would it take to do that?โ And some of them were very frank and said, โMoney.โ They said, โFor me to come here, going to college, it still cost me car insurance, it cost me gas, it cost me all these different things.โโ
One suggestion raised for boosting public safety finances is through collaboration. That includes sharing across municipal lines apparatus like a ladder truck that may have cost $500,000 a decade ago and is now $2 million, said Jerry Ozog, public safety specialist for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. โWe are going to see many volunteer fire companies that are never going to be able to purchase a new vehicle again,โ he said. โAnd theyโll have to rely on keeping their vehicles longer, working with other organizations. But the ability to collaborate, to sit down, that is essentially whatโs going to need to happen โ whatever that looks like, multiple municipalities working together.โ
Ozog credited Pennsylvania officials with passage of Act 172 of 2016, which allows municipalities to extend a real estate or earned income tax credit to active members of volunteer fire companies and nonprofit emergency medical service agencies. Additional tax credits may help to make the finances work for people who want to volunteer but still need to work full time, said Rohrer, the East Petersburg Fire Co. chief. โWhat about tax credits from the state for, you know, businesses that are letting their members go?โ he asked. โIโm a business owner and you know, if our people volunteer, we let them go, we donate.โ
Darryl Keiser, chief of Garden Spot Fire Rescue in Lancaster Countyโs New Holland, said he knows employers who will pay their workers for the first hour of an emergency call response. That can be enough time to handle some of his departmentโs 600 calls a year that are nuisances โ no real emergency, but a call that must be handled nonetheless. โDoes he get any tax break or anything like that for what heโs doing? No,โ Keiser said. โThat encouragement maybe from the municipalities and from the state could be helpful.โ
Financial constraints aside, being a first responder is physically and mentally demanding, the officials stressed. That requires both mentally steeling yourself for what you need to do but also putting in the hours outside of work to make sure youโre fit for duty, said Kilgore, the regional police chief. โThey have to wake up in the morning and go to work and make that switch in their mind that theyโre willing to run into the burning building or to the shots fired or to the school where thereโs an active shooter and put themselves at harmโs way,โ he said. โThey do it every day. In order to be proficient at that, you must be able to mentally overcome some of the dangers.โ
The public safety officials who spoke Wednesday agreed on the need for mental health support for first responders. โThereโs no question anymore that it needs to happen,โ State Fire Commissioner Thomas Cook said, adding that recruitment is a very diverse problem and there is an opportunity to see what is working in different departments to bring success to those who are struggling.
