News

Reprinted from the SentinelSource.com

Editorial from the Keene Sentinel

September 1, 2010

If small towns hadn’t created volunteer firefighters, Norman Rockwell would have made them do it. There are few things as affirming of community self-reliance as the image of volunteers rushing from their day jobs or beds to help douse a fire up on the Davis Road.

But pressures of the modern world have dimmed the appeal of volunteer fire fighting to the point where local departments feel the need to crank up their marketing to attract and retain hands. As The Sentinel’s Jenna Staul recently reported, fire chiefs are increasingly having to rely on smaller than ideal cadres of volunteers to carry out their functions, meanwhile running the risk of getting to fires late.

Society’s reliance on volunteer firefighters is quite pronounced. Of the roughly 8,000 firefighters in New Hampshire, fully 6,800 are volunteers. The numbers are down, consistent with national trends that the National Volunteer Fire Council says have dropped the population of volunteer firefighters by 10 percent during the last 20 years.

The declines are attributed to a number of things, the bad economy being a recent source of problems, as well as some employers apparently discouraging workers from taking on obligations that cause them to miss work. There’s also the time required to get training — the most basic course in New Hampshire consumes 230 hours — that towns are increasingly requiring out of liability concerns.

Finally, there’s the low pay. Despite the job title, most volunteer fire fighters are paid something, but the remuneration is commonly minimal, and in many cases is also taxed.

The national volunteer fire organization has made efforts at the federal level to win tax breaks for volunteer fire and emergency medical workers, and there are moves to harmonize federal and state laws regarding deferred compensation programs.

Considering the sexier issues on legislative plates in Concord and Washington these days, changing the tax treatment of volunteer first responder compensation isn’t likely to get a lot of attention. But, given the importance of having enough volunteers on hand when fires break out, it ought to.

• Statistics and Fact Sheets
• News
• Newsletters
• Advertising Opportunities
• In the News: Volunteer Fire Service