They\u2019re burnt out.<\/p>\n
The number of volunteer firefighters across New York state has plummeted to a \u201cdisturbing\u201d 40-year low \u2014 and Long Island, where firefighting is entirely unpaid, is being scorched<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n \u201cResponse times are 10 to 15 minutes longer,\u201d North Massapequa chief Joseph Ferrante told The Post.<\/p>\n Volunteer firefighters have plummeted to record lows across New York State. Paul Mazza for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a life. You can possibly go into the fire, grab someone, and take them out. Minutes count,\u201d warned the chief, who first joined up after a fast response for his father\u2019s heart attack in the 1990s.<\/p>\n The \u201cpitiful\u201d decline in recruits has fallen off a cliff \u2014 from 110,000 to 70,000 statewide within the last 7-8 years, said Ralph Raymond, second vice president of the Association of Fire Districts of New York.<\/p>\n North Massapequa fire chief Joseph Ferrante is feeling the impacts of low volunteer numbers. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cA truck that normally has about six or seven people driving out on it, now only has about four. It stretches them, it puts them in a dangerous situation,\u201d added Raymond, who is campaigning across the Empire State this week to sound the alarm \u2014 starting in Albany Wednesday.<\/p>\n The numbers were higher in 1992 when state Sen. Steven Rhoads, an active volunteer firefighter in Wantagh, first enlisted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had somewhere around 125,000,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThere was a waiting list because there were so many volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n The volunteer ranks across Long Island are down 5,000 over the last five years \u2014 to just 20,000 firefighters. <\/p>\n Things are so dire that Nassau County\u2019s century-old Floral Park Centre Fire Company closed shut in January over lack of staffing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very disturbing,\u201d Ferrante, the North Massapequa chief,\u00a0said of the closure. <\/p>\n The low recruitment issue has been ongoing for nearly a decade. John Roca<\/p>\n \u201cWe have volunteers that want to do the job, but there\u2019s not enough volunteers to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n While the volunteer base is dropping off, calls aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n Suffolk County alone saw a recent 37% rise in fire dispatches on top of a 16% increase in working house fires. Rhoads added that Nassau has seen close to 40 working fire calls already this year.<\/p>\n The jarring stats prompted Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican, to say volunteers are needed \u201cnow more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n There is also growing concern that environmental factors, such as tree-killing beetles<\/a>, could spark more aggressive wildfires in vulnerable areas like the rural east end of Suffolk, which was already ravaged nearly a year ago <\/a>and have yet to recover fully.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s concerning,\u201d said Riverhead Councilman Ken Rothwell, an active volunteer in Wading River\u2019s fire department.<\/p>\n The threat of wildfires, like last year\u2019s on the east end, are again concerning with low recruits. Mattituck Fire Department<\/p>\n Rothwell added that the big blazes will always have mutual aid assistance from other fire departments \u2014 Ferrante\u2019s company and others \u2014 as far as Elmont on the Queens border, which responded to last year\u2019s wildfires out in Suffolk.<\/p>\n Doing so, however, leaves few firefighters on standby.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s a small accident, there\u2019s another fire in your hometown, your top responders are in another district fighting,\u201d said Rothwell, who\u2019s been on the job for over two decades.<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t start the fire<\/p>\n There is grave concern for the lack of volunteer firefighters across New York and Long Island. Paul Mazza for NY Post<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a lack of heroism behind the dismal volumes, but instead a sad truth about the current cost of living.<\/p>\n \u201cMost volunteer firefighters, male or female, are working two jobs,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have the time to dedicate to their volunteer fire service.\u201d<\/p>\n North Massapequa chief Joseph Ferrante revealed to The Post that \u201cResponse times are 10 to 15 minutes longer.\u201d Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n Training standards and the time commitment to follow through have also greatly increased from years past, according to Ed Kraus, the deputy chief instructor at the Nassau County Fire Service Academy.<\/p>\n \u201cYears ago, you could join, go through your training, take a week off from work,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cNow it\u2019s almost three weeks for that same training \u2026 they can\u2019t just walk in and say, \u2018Hey, boss, I\u2019m taking three weeks off.\u2019 I have to go train to become a firefighter.\u201d<\/p>\n Fired up<\/p>\n Stakeholders like Raymond and Ferrante are calling for incentives to have more volunteers sign up. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n Politicians and stakeholders across Long Island are doing what they can to bolster recruiting through incentives \u2014 especially appealing to younger men and women trying to make ends meet.<\/p>\n Rhoads also introduced state legislation in late January that would cover tuition at SUNY and CUNY schools for volunteer firefighters, ambulance company members and auxiliary cops.<\/p>\n Raymond is also calling for Albany to pay volunteers who are willing to remain in their firehouses on standby for hours at a time.<\/p>\n Stakeholders are trying to enact change for volunteer firefighters on Long Island. Mattituck Fire Department<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s nominally compensate them $100 to stand by for six or seven hours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Rothwell also passed local legislation to sweeten the deal in Riverhead, shortening the timeframe for firefighter tax incentive eligibility from five years to two years of service.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to get those younger people who joined the fire department to stay with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWith maybe [departments] investing $10,000 in this individual, and it would be a shame that after they do it for a year or two, and then go, \u2018I can\u2019t. I have to work two jobs.’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re burnt out. The number of volunteer firefighters across New York state has plummeted to a \u201cdisturbing\u201d 40-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[195,544,776,57,774,9,11,10,49,51,50,773],"class_list":{"0":"post-152167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-firefighters","9":"tag-fires","10":"tag-long-island","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-nassau-county","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-new-york-state","17":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","18":"tag-new-york-state-news","19":"tag-suffolk-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}