Volunteer numbers are declining for emergency services. Rep. Frank Burns (D), thinks a scholarship incentive could do the trick, and some firefighters agree.
“Frank Burns gets it,” said John Kane, marketing coordinator for the Allegheny Mountain Firefighters Initiative. “He understands the urgent need to recruit more volunteer firefighters, people that will put theirselves in the right place at the right time to help their community. And he also knows that we need to reduce the cost of higher education for our young people.”
Rep. Burns said he wants the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency to award scholarships to fire companies, ambulance services and rescue squad volunteers.
“We get the young kids that’s something when they’re in high school, they can see some scholarship money there, they might stick around for a couple years,” said Cambria County Fire School Chairman John Hawksworth. “The big thing is keeping them in the fire department.”
The grant money they might receive typically goes to new equipment and operations. Plus, current volunteer firefighters are getting older. They’re looking to the 18 to 35 age group for help.
“It is getting tougher to recover,” Hawksworth said. “Used to be able to go to a fire in the middle of the fire in the night when you were young and be able to go to work. And now it takes a couple of days to recover from that. It’s just not an easy thing to work the volunteer into your full time job and your family.”
They do much more than fight fires. They need people to respond to vehicle accidents, medical calls, confined space incidents, etc..
“It’s kind of tough right now you know, in the middle of the day a lot of us work and we don’t get to volunteer,” Hawksworth said. “A lot of people have families and they have activities with their families and, fire whistle blows, what’s going to happen that day when nobody does show up?”
“Unless you live in the city limits of Altoona or Johnstown, your homes, your schools, your churches,” Kane said. “Every place you work is protected by volunteer firefighters. And we need more volunteer firefighters.”
The bill hasn’t come before any other lawmakers yet. As always, they are recruiting. If you’re interesting in signing up, you can check out their stand in the Logan Valley Mall or head to joinvfd.com.