Volunteer fire departments critical in wildfires, but face firefighter shortage
Bill Poehler
AUMSVILLE – When smoke was first spotted at Silver Creek Falls State Park in what became the Silver Creek Fire, the first firefighters on the scene were from the Drakes Crossing Fire Department, a department outside of Silverton that relies heavily on volunteers.
Though fire crews from Oregon Department of Forestry and other agencies came to fight the fire, the Drakes Crossing crew remained on the scene for the duration of the fight.
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Firefighters from rural fire departments are often the first on the scene of wildfires, but many rural fire departments are experiencing a shortage of volunteer firefighters.
“I think the need for volunteers in our rural and smaller communities, and even our moderately sized communities, is at the critical stage,” said George Dunkel, consulting administrator for the Special District Association of Oregon.
“I can recruit a 65-year-old gentlemen to drive a water tender, but I can’t train him to go in a fire. There’s a critical need across the state for what I would call a combat firefighter, someone who can go in a burning house and put it out.”
Role of volunteer fire departments today
Decades ago when a fire bell rang in any small town, the town’s barber, grocery store owner and dozens of other citizens would drop what they were doing and run to the fire station.
Volunteer firefighters were vital to the survival of the community, and nearly every able-bodied man took part.
The percentage of paid full-time firefighters has increased in major metropolitan areas, but in rural areas the role of a volunteer firefighter is not as well known as was a century ago.
“My next-door neighbors assume all you guys are paid,” said Nic Schrock, who has volunteered at the Aumsville Rural Fire District for six years. “This whole area, Salem is about your only all-paid spot.”
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According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, volunteers make up about 70 percent of firefighters in the United States.
Cities such as Stayton and Silverton have a mix of volunteers and paid staff to fight fires.
The volunteers can go from eating dinner at home to knocking down a front door to put out a fire in five minutes.
“The common thing we heard was we don’t know you guys needed us,” said Roy Hari, fire chief for the Aumsville Rural Fire District. “The volunteer fire service across the nation is struggling right now.”
When Odis Coleman started as a volunteer firefighter in Aumsville in 2003, the staff of volunteers was so large – 35 – it was almost a competition among the volunteers to make it to the first engine out of the fire department.
He lives five blocks from the station and couldn’t make it on the first engine out to most fires.
“We had volunteers who lived in that house, that house, we had Mark and we had two who lived in the apartments right there,” Coleman said, pointing to locations immediately around the Aumsville Rural Fire Department building.
“They would just be gone. Now it’s a little different.”
Role in wildfires
As wildfires blaze across the state, volunteer firefighters play significant roles.
As most large fires are in remote areas, rural fire departments are often the first on the scene in the critical early moments of a fire when it can grow exponentially in minutes.
Aumsville and many other rural fire departments sent engines and crews to help fight the Substation Fire outside of The Dalles last week.
They fought the fire alongside full-time firefighters from other agencies and private firefighters.
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“Really, you look at this and when those firefighters responded to Sherman and Wasco county last week, nobody looked at them and said, 'You’re getting 10 bucks an hour and you’re getting 25 bucks an hour,'” Dunkel said.
“They look at what you can do to help us mitigate this. The volunteers play a huge role. They are what we call boots on the ground.”
Dunkel said while many larger municipalities will send fire engines to help with fires such as the Silver Creek Fire or the Substation Fire, their engines are not capable of going on the remote, hard-to-access land.
Many of the rural fire districts have fire engines that can.
What it takes to be a volunteer firefighter
Most fire stations, such as Aumsville, offer introductory classes for people interested in volunteering.
But the training is rigorous and requires long hours and sacrifice.
“We got to do the same thing that Salem Fire does, we got to have the same standards, same training,” Coleman said. “We pick our training up as volunteers.”
The fire departments pay for the training of their volunteers, and once they get in the fire engine headed to a call, they are fully insured as any employee of the department would be.
Some volunteers leave shortly after the training is over, and many have other pursuits that require their time.
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"We have people that are here every single call and man, I’d put those guys up against anybody out there,” Hari said. “It’s all about how often you get down to the calls.
“The best thing that can happen to a new recruit firefighter is to have a few fires, because that always hooks them.”
Being a firefighter isn’t only about fighting fires, either.
There’s also a sense of commitment to the community.
“There’s so much more than what I ever thought than just doing fires,” Schrock said. “If you’re helping someone and you’re doing CPR or someone’s kid got hurt, there’s a lot more to appreciate as life goes on.”
Pilot program in Aumsville
A year ago, there was a fire not far from Coleman’s business, Transformer Technologies, on Turner Road on the edge of Salem.
Four of the employees, including Coleman, are volunteers with the Aumsville Rural Fire District.
As soon as they got the call, Schrock and Brad Buchholz drove their cars the eight minutes to Aumsville to get a fire engine then drove back to fight the fire.
It sparked something.
Buchholz and Schrock came up with the idea of stopping in Shaw at Aumsville’s substation every day they’re working and driving one of the fire trucks to the Transformer Technologies shop.
“We would have been like the first engine on scene,” Coleman said.
The Aumsville Rural Fire District encompasses 32 square miles and in 2017, the fire district responded to 813 calls.
They will be three minutes from the boundary of Aumsville’s district – and closer to the Turner Fire District – but their response time will be significantly quicker for any call in Aumsville
Some volunteer firefighters don’t have employers who would let them go to fight a fire in the middle of a work shift.
Coleman certainly does: His employees are still paid their regular hourly wage when they go fight a fire.
“I think that’s probably the most important part about this is that the employer supports it,” said Hari, formerly with Marion County Fire District 1. “In any other community, the taxpayer is paying that firefighter.
“Here it’s a private employer paying that firefighter. That’s something that you can’t replace. That’s an absolutely incredible offer for a company to do that. I truly believe that the return comes back.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler
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