Local Fire Departments Struggle with Recruitment

Riverdale Park’s fire department is struggling to keep up with the number of calls they are receiving for ambulances and firefighters.

Like many of the fire departments in Prince George’s County, a lack of funding, time and interest have left them unable to recruit as many new volunteer firefighters as they’d like. 

(Station 7) President Steve Lamphier said at the that the company had a record number of responses in 2010.

They had 4,900 calls in 2010, which is more than 1,500 more calls than they had in 2009, Lamphier said. They have a roster of about 45 active members.

With the lack of full-time county staffing at the (Station 13) and that fire stations smaller active volunteer roster of about a dozen, Riverdale Park’s fire department has had to fill in when they can’t respond. They responded to 70 to 80 calls from Riverdale Heights in the first two months of 2011.

"We are not happy to see them struggle at all,” Lamphier said then to the town council. “We get ambulance-billing revenue from their calls, but it's wearing us out, too.”

In February, County Fire Chief Mark Bashoor told Bowie’s town council that there’s been a decline in volunteer firefighters throughout the county.

Bashoor said there are currently 94 vacancies in the county’s fire department.

“We are stretched thin, I’m not going to paint a picture of anything but that,” he said in February. “The budget is what it is.

With 94 trainees coming into the program with three classes starting between the end of February and May, the vacancies will be filled; however, Bashoor says that the department needs a minimum of 1,200 staff to run effectively. There are currently 765 firefighters in the county.

“I don’t anticipate any trouble getting that number raised, it’s the problem of finding the money to hire the people in the outgoing fiscal years,” he said. “We will have to be very delicate about we find that.”

Training requirements and language barriers stall recruitment

Station 13’s Chief Bruce Harrison said Riverdale Heights began seeing issues with staffing in August of 2009.

“The county was faced with financial realities and had to remove county staffing from our station to reduce overtime expenses elsewhere,” Harrison said.

As a Prince George’s County taxpayer, he said, he understands why they had to make the cuts. Riverdale Park still has four county firefighter report to their station Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“It has been a struggle—the toughest part is that because we’re shorthanded it has an effect on the route,” Harrison said.

Riverdale Heights should have been the first responder for a earlier this month but because the crew was missing a driver they couldn’t go out.

“The thing that takes the longest to develop is a wagon driver,” he said. “[The driver has] a lot of people’s safety in [their] hands, not only the crew, but the people out there.”

However, he said, response times haven’t suffered even with the shortage. The county is required to respond within three minutes of a call.

Lamphier agrees that training requirements are making recruiting a little more difficult.

“The days are gone where there wasn’t much training required,” he said. “Now you’re not considered a full trained member for 18 to 24 months.

Although nearly anyone can apply to become a firefighter, without prior experience, they must get a physical, background check and go to classes for a total of 139 hours to learn the basics of being a firefighter and EMT. The key is they also have to finish the training within a three-year period from turning in their application.

But because they are volunteers, Lamphier said, many of them have other full-time jobs, so it’s a huge time commitment.

With the current financial situation, more people need paying jobs, he added.

Another issue is changing demographics. Both Riverdale Park and Riverdale Heights have a larger Hispanic population, of which many English isn’t their first language.

Both Lamphier and Harrison said they have tried to find ways to help recruit bilingual firefighters. Harrison has been successful in recruiting some volunteers that speak Spanish, but not enough to reflect the community he’s serving.

Departments hope to amp up recruiting from high schools, University of Maryland and from within communities by marketing benefits of joining a company

Although firefighters and EMTs must be 18 years old to fight fires and save lives, members can apply at the age of 16 and start training, according to Lamphier.

“At 16, they can observe and ride-a-long on calls, but can’t do much else,” he said.

So far, it’s bee pretty rare for the department to have many high school age members.

Members can also live at the fire stations. Riverdale Chief Charles Ryan said 11 members currently live at the fire station.

“To keep them here, we’re treating them well,” Lamphier said. “We try to give them real breaks.”

He is also hoping the county eventually creates a course for bilingual staff and find a way to streamline the application process.

Also because 75 percent of their calls are for EMTs, departments are in need of people with an interest in becoming a paramedic.

Harrison said he’d like to recruit more from the University of Maryland, stating that many students with an interest in become paramedics or doctors may want to join a fire company to get the training and experience early.

They don’t even have to become a firefighter, he said, noting that former members have moved onto jobs with the Federal Aviation Administration, a vice president of engineering nationwide broadcast firm and a former Governor of Maine.

Lamphier said anyone can apply and no experience is necessary. Although there is a background check, the company won’t know the results of it or of the physicals.

“We want them to be successful,” he added.

There’s camaraderie within the company, Ryan said. “The more the merrier.”

Bowie Patch contributed to this report.