Some of the men that had gathered at the firehall that night were eargerly awaiting some much anticipated training, many had been in the fire service for 30 years or more and many had been through the same training hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. As the stories began to roll out of their mouths, I was amazed by the knowledge they held inside them. As they waited for training to start,the war stories began to flow amongst them. Of course, volunteer firefighters like to reminisce as much as old war buddies do about wars long ago, their tales of heroism enchanting, their stories touching to the heart. And through all this chatter was the talk of dedication, of volunteering for fellow man and neighbors, of the countless evenings spent serving them. I had the feeling that even though each and everyone of them had their own opinions about the issues on hand and each one of them had a different way of telling the story, that if a pager had gone off, there would have been a stampede toward the nearest piece of fire apparatus. "It's an inborn spirit," one of them muttered. "You can't teach it, you just have to have the sense of duty. That duty may include jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to answer someone's call for help." But as the men continued to speak andthe stories grew longer. The younger generations of today have too many distractions, too many events that swallow up their time. They don't seem to have to spirit of volunteerism they once had. It has become a serious problem for volunteer firefighters to deal with. There are nineteen local fire departments in Wyoming County, all of them being 100 percent volunteer. Thirteen of them with ambulatory services. The average age of the volunteer firefighter in the county has risen from 20 to 30, with the influx and retention of new members slowing drastically. There has been a 19.6 percent drop in the number of firefighters across the state in the last 10 years alone. The taxpayers of New York paid out nearly $115 million for volunteer fire protection. It would have cost an additional $850 million to $1.2 billion per year if communities had to replace the volunteers with paid personnel. Currently there are over fifteen hundred volunteer departments in the state, protecting over 19 millions of this states residents. It is a dangerous occupation that has claimed many lives. Hundreds of firefighters across the nation have lost their lives, many of them volunteers. There were some 7000 fires in the year 2000, that caused millions of dollars in damages. Volunteer firefighting in this country and New York State, is in trouble. There is apathy and neglect. There is a serious lack of funding and a severe shortage in manpower. An increasing number of employers are not allowing these firefighters to be released from their jobs to answer these calls. Especially during the daylight hours, where the shortage of manpower is felt the most and needed the most. If we could just get the younger people of our society to volunteer some of their time. If we could get our employers to open their eyes, hearts and minds, we could possibly win the war against apathy and overwhelming force of shortages in manpower. Just stop and think for a moment what volunteering a few days a month or letting an employee answer a few calls could do to curb the problem and how much the community would appreciate your efforts and thoughtfulness. Maybe by allowing their employees to answer some of the "major" calls or where they can clearly hear that more help is needed, a difference can be made.
