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Volunteer firemen: Numbers paint a grim reality

The Sun-Gazette recently profiled the state of volunteer firefighting in Lycoming County.

The numbers – starting with the larger state picture – tell a grim story. There were 300,000 volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania in the mid-1970s. Today there are about 72,000, a 75-percent drop.

Local companies that used to total 100 active firemen now total 40.

Then there are the expenses. A fire truck that cost $198,000 in the 1990s costs $400,000 today. Turnout gear costs $3,500 per fireman.

There are societal pressures impinging on the firefighting membership. With both partners working becoming the rule rather than the exception, spending time hanging out at the fire hall is no longer part of the family lifestyle. Junior firefighters may not join a fire company until they are 14. In today’s world, by then they have other interests.

Add to that the increased time and complexity surrounding the training regulations for volunteer firemen and the amount of time spent on fundraising to pay for everything and a gloomy picture emerges.

Part of the solution in our region, as we have advocated for at least two decades, is regionalization and sharing of services among neighboring fire departments wherever possible.

The second help would be an attitude in every home that fire and EMS service is just about the best thing a young person could choose as a volunteer vocation.

And all of us, if we know a volunteer firefighter in the home, in the neighborhood or around the block, should be thanking them everyday for what they do. They are today’s forgotten heroes – and we need them now as much as ever.

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