Turning up the heat on recruitment efforts on Long Island

Volunteer fire departments are constantly faced with the challenge of recruiting new firefighters and emergency medical technicians — as call volume increases and the number of active members decreases.

This weekend, fire departments in the Sixth Battalion — which includes Bellmore, East Meadow, Levittown, Massapequa, Merrick, North Bellmore, North Massapequa, North Merrick, Seaford and Wantagh — will open their doors for the 14th annual RecruitNY campaign.

At open houses scattered throughout the area on April 22 and 23, those interested in joining departments will have the opportunity to speak with active volunteers, ask questions and learn about the benefits of becoming a firefighter or EMT.

The Firefighters Association of New York estimates that there are 20,000 fewer volunteer firefighters now than there were 20 years ago. Calls are becoming increasingly more varied, as volunteers are called for medical emergencies, flooded basements, downed power lines, car accidents, as well as fires, the association said.

Members of the Sixth Battalion are close-knit, according to chairman Peter Cheswick, who is the immediate past chief of the East Meadow Fire Department. They meet monthly to discuss business, which also includes ways to recruit new members to their respective fire departments.

“We’re all seeing the same problems,” Cheswick said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s East Meadow, Wantagh, Seaford — we’re all suffering the same problems of low numbers of people wanting to volunteer.”

Cheswick, who started with the East Meadow Fire Department in its junior program when he was 15, and then officially when he turned 18, said that he began seeing the decline in new volunteers about 10 years ago.

Bellmore Fire Chief Timothy Carroll said he started witnessing a decline in membership in his fire department around five to six years ago.

“It’s all relative,” Carroll said. “If you ask a guy from 50 years ago, he says, ‘Back in the day, people were dying to get in here.’ What’s low to me is almost nonexistent to them.”

“We try to explain as best as possible about how much time it will be once they join,” Cheswick said. “But then people actually sit down and realize how much time is actually taken up, and they can’t do it, so they wind up leaving only after a short amount of time.”

The decline also could be attributed to how much more time they need to put into supporting their families. Cheswick said he himself works two jobs, in addition to his work with the fire department.

“You have your family, you have obligations with jobs, maybe two jobs, so it’s harder to keep those members,” Cheswick said. “We’re trying everything we can to lessen the load for people, but it’s hard because you need to train, you need to go to calls, you need to come to meetings and know what’s going on.”

Carroll said, “As the years have gone, the average of the firemen has gotten older. Kids, meaning 18, 19-year-olds, are going away to college, and they’re not coming back.

“It’s so expensive to live here,” he added, “Why would you stay if you can get out of here? People are working two, three jobs, and they don’t have the time anymore.”

Phil Schaaf, a captain in the Wantagh Fire Department’s third station, said the issue is not a decline in numbers, but rather an aging fire department and a lack of younger members.

“Our members are starting to get a little older,” Schaaf said. “So let’s bring in some new — not just younger, but just new — folks to really start to supplement some of those that are not able to be as active due to age and health.”

George Kern, a former chief of the Seaford Fire Department, holds similar views about a department of aging firefighters.

Fire departments are receiving more calls now due to modern smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that automatically alert local departments. So even though the threat in a home may not be serious enough for a response, firefighters are still summoned anyway.

Each department in the Sixth Battalion renders mutual aid whenever one of its independent fire departments needs assistance. In the past, only certain calls required mutual aid, but now more help is needed since there are fewer volunteers answering calls.

Each fire department covers the cost to train new volunteers — and it takes about four to five months to complete training.

“If I swore you in today,” Carroll said, “I could get you into academy classes in May, and you’d be through the fire academy by August, September maybe. But if you join in September, I can’t get you into the fire academy until (next) May, because they can’t run outdoor classes in the winter.”

New members are required to respond to 25 percent of all calls their first year, and must attend 50 percent of all training sessions and 50 percent of all meetings. After the first year, they only need to attend 20 percent of calls, meetings and events, which Carroll estimates is roughly four hours a week.

Fire department volunteers receive benefits, such as college tuition assistance, tax deductions and pension. A volunteer force, as compared to an all-career firefighting force, saves residents $273 million in annual taxes.

Starting ’em young

One of the best ways to recruit and retain volunteers is to get them interested in the fire department at a young age. Most fire departments have a junior fire company, with volunteers starting at age 15 and getting a taste of what it’s like to be a firefighter or EMT.

They can earn the opportunity to attend Camp Fahrenheit 516, a week-long camp held during the summer at the Nassau County Fire Service Academy in Old Bethpage, where they are trained on a variety of practices they need to know to become a firefighter.

In addition, Nassau BOCES operates EMT training courses for high school students. Cheswick said East Meadow Fire Department officials have been trying to speak at more East Meadow School District career days to show students what’s available to them. Carroll said the Bellmore Fire Department also visits John F. Kennedy High School for the same purpose.

“​​We’ve been really adamant about trying to push the school districts to let us in on their career days,” Cheswick said, “so that we can show them what the volunteer service has to offer.”

Seaford’s fire department only has one firehouse, but former chief George Kern said its doors are open to young people who want to make a difference in the community.

“We’re a big family,” Kern said. “We’re community-oriented. We’re looking for firefighters, paramedics, and we’re even recruiting for our junior firefighter program, which is for middle school and high school students. They can also be very helpful in getting the word out about us.”

From volunteer to career

For college-aged kids, free tuition at Nassau Community College is available for those who volunteer at their local fire departments. All that is needed is a signed letter from the chief showing involvement within the fire district.

Two of Cheswick’s children, Kasey, 21, and Connor, 19, took advantage of this program. Connor is currently studying emergency management at NCC, and Kasey turned her EMT training from the fire department into a full time EMT gig for New York State at Jones Beach.

The free training received at the local fire department can be taken with members if they want to move on to a paid career in the New York City EMS, NYPD, FDNY or EMT.

Life-long friendship and brotherhood

According to both Schaaf and Kern, volunteer firefighters are wrapped up in a sense of community and purpose.

“It’s about helping the community and helping your neighbors,” Schaaf said. “There’s a lot of family fun, as well as parades and barbecues that families can partake in. There’s a lot there to kind of, to help each other out, as well as kind of build that camaraderie.”

State Sen. Steve Rhoads, who counts three decades of service in the Wantagh Fire Department, said, “The 30 years I’ve spent in the volunteer fire service has been among the most rewarding experiences in my life. The ability to answer the call of a neighbor in their time of need builds a sense of community that can’t be duplicated in any other way. We are all called upon to serve and use our gifts and talents to benefit others, and whether you join as a firefighter or fire medic, it’s a great way to make a difference in people’s lives in a direct and personal way.”