As Chief of the East Brandywine Fire Company I have the privilege of leading an incredibly talented group of volunteers. They are passionate about providing high quality emergency services to the residents, business owners, and visitors of East Brandywine, West Brandywine, and Upper Uwchlan Townships.

In 2015, East Brandywine Fire Company volunteers responded to over 749 emergencies (373 Fire/Rescue related & 376 EMS related). This translated into 5,579 volunteer hours of service. We are on pace to surpass this call volume in 2016.

In order to be able to perform under highly stressful situations and advance their skills volunteers must train. Our volunteers participated in 48 training sessions in 2015. On average 25 volunteers attend these 3-hour weekly training sessions.

Our volunteers also participated in 20 Community events and educated over 2,500 children in fire prevention programs.

Lastly, volunteers participated in multiple fundraising events ranging from Chicken BBQ’s to boot drives in order to have the funding needed to remain operational.

As Chief of the Fire Company, you can imagine how proud I am of the impact we’re having in the Community. Everyday our talented team of volunteer professionals help restore normalcy to people’s lives during one of their worst possible moments. This level of service however does not happen by accident, it happens as a result of an enormous time commitment and self-sacrifice on the part of the volunteers as I have outlined above.

In order for us to sustain this level of commitment and service to the Community however we need your help!

Recent articles featured in the New York Times entitled “The Disappearing Volunteer Fire Fighter” and USA Today entitled “Number of volunteer firefighters is declining” highlight the challenges faced by volunteer fire companies today.

These include:

• Pennsylvania’s volunteer firefighter base has dropped from 300,000 to 50,000

• Volunteers are leaving the fire service as a result of fundraising requirements and increased training requirements

• Most households now require two income’s which leaves little time for persons to volunteer

• Skyrocketing costs of fire equipment and preventive maintenance are making budgets unmanageable

• There are no incentives (tax breaks, pension plans, etc.) in the State of Pennsylvania for volunteers

According to Vincent McNally, volunteer firefighter and an emeritus associate professor of political science at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia who has studied the decline in volunteer firefighters, said that too much is being asked of the volunteers.

As a Fire Chief, and a 30-year tenured volunteer firefighter, I agree with Professor McNally. In order for us to continue to sustain our service to the Community we must make sure we are working collaboratively to address these issues. If we are not proactive in addressing issues affecting the volunteer fire service, East Brandywine may fall victim, which will impact our ability to promptly and effectively respond to emergencies.

Most importantly as we move forward we must determine a sustainable model of funding. It is unrealistic to continue to burden volunteers with fundraising responsibilities when they are already saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

The harsh reality of the situation is this, when volunteers are not responding to emergencies and have free time they should be training and making sure their equipment is functional, not using precious time fundraising. This is particularly important since it has been well documented as a primary reason why volunteers are leaving the fire service. When residents dial 911 for an emergency they expect their responders to be skilled at providing emergency service, not cooking chicken or begging with a boot for spare change in order to provide this life-saving service.

Currently Municipal contributions cover less than 50% of the Fire Company’s annual operating budget. The money is approved annually and not tied to any predictable formula. No portion of a residents tax bill is specifically dedicated to fund these essential emergency services.

A common misconception in the public that is that the Fire Company is 100% supported by tax dollars and is fully paid. In both instances this is a false perception of how the Fire Company operates. .

Moving forward it is essential for Fire Company officials, Municipal leaders and Residents to work together collaboratively to find solutions to these challenges facing the volunteer fire service. The taxpayer cost of having to fund a fully paid fire company significantly outweighs the cost of supplemental funding.

The volunteers of the East Brandywine Fire Company look forward to continuing to work together with all of our stakeholders to provide the Community with the highest quality emergency service available. We also look forward to collaboratively developing funding models that allow us to sustain the volunteer model for years to come.