Rockland volunteer fire departments look to continue their recruiting success

If you think your property taxes are too high, thank your local volunteer fire department for saving you and your neighbors an additional $100 million each year.

That, after you thank them for saving lives and property and putting themselves at risk every time they respond to an alarm. Of course, that’s what firefighters do — without hesitation — and in Rockland, there’s a long tradition that it is done by volunteers.

That $100 million figure is a 2003 estimate of the cost to replace 26 volunteer departments with paid firefighters. Eight years later, you can bet it would cost substantially more.

But why would we ever shift to paid firefighters?

That possibility arose 25 or 30 years ago, when Rockland started changing. We were getting older, the cost of living started rising and our young adults started fleeing. Breadwinners found jobs elsewhere, leaving fewer volunteers to respond to alarms during the day. Families had two adults working, sometimes at multiple jobs.

About 15 years ago, with a crisis looming, Rockland’s fire service began a concerted effort at recruitment and retention — holding onto those you recruited long enough for them to be trained and get hooked on rolling out of bed in the middle of the night to risk their health and safety for people they likely didn’t know.

That effort has paid off, according to Director of Fire and Emergency Services Gordon Wren Jr., leaving Rockland one of only three counties in New York with growth in its volunteer corps from year to year. The others are Suffolk and Erie. That, Wren says, is a real success story for Rockland.

The success comes only because Rockland has remained proactive in recruiting men and women and then providing them with such quality instruction that others come from outside the area to study at our Fire Training Center. The result, Wren says, is measured in lives saved. While in the 1970s Rockland averaged about 12 fire fatalities a year, there’s been just one death here since January 2007.

One of the veterans of the county’s Recruitment and Retention Committee is Frank Hutton of Nanuet, who says that, although most departments have enough volunteers to get by, they all need and want more help. When the program began, he says, Rockland had a total of about 2,500 fire volunteers. That’s up to about 3,000 now, but adding 500 more would mean “a pure gain of active members,” those who actually respond and fight fires.

Last year’s adult graduations at the Fire Training Center produced 134 volunteers with basic Firefighter I training and 51 with Firefighter II training. That keeps us just 2 to 3 percent ahead of losses, Hutton says.

That’s why at least four departments — Nanuet, Sparkill, Stony Point and Thiells — will take part this weekend in “Recruit NY,” the first statewide volunteer recruitment effort.

They will open their doors for tours and demonstrations, offer information on the benefits of being a volunteer and discuss the training and other requirements.

Nanuet will welcome visitors on Saturday. Sparkill and Stony Point plan open houses on Sunday. Thiells will greet prospective recruits both days.

If you live elsewhere and want to volunteer or learn more, check in at your local fire company.

Hutton’s recruiting effort actually started Sunday at the annual YouthFest. He spoke with youths and parents about opportunities for young people to get involved. Some of the parents wanted to volunteer, too.

Rockland now has a $1 million four-year grant from the Department of Homeland Security to help with recruitment and retention.

Part of that pays for the the county’s Fire and EMS Training Youth Academy, which graduates two classes each year. There’s also an Explorer Post at the Fire Training Center for those 14 to 18. They get full firefighter training, but not state certification. Still, Hutton says, it gives them an edge when they actually join at a local department.

The goal of both programs is simple. “You get them interested when they are young and you keep them the rest of their lives.” Recruiting also targets parents of young children who are likely to stay in a community. Departments in Hillburn and Rockland Lake have gone door to door, concentrating on homes with teens or young adults, Wren says, and Sparkill is working with St. Thomas Aquinas College to find recruits.

Even young recruits are sometimes out of action. Sparkill Chief Mike Yannazzone says four of 44 active members — who handle 150 to 190 calls annually — are on active military duty.

The key to retention is quality leadership, says Gordon Wren, pointing to young, effective chiefs in departments like Sparkill and Stony Point — two of those opening their doors this weekend.