Bucks County fire company hires FT firefighters with volunteer numbers low
NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) -- This weekend, a Bucks County fire company started using full-time, paid firefighters to help cover a gap in volunteers – a problem many local companies are also facing.
In the 1970s, there were more than 300,000 volunteer firefighters in the state of Pennsylvania.
But now, there are fewer than 70,000
"The issue is really around response time," Adam M. Selisker, the fire chief of Northampton Township, said. "How long do you want to wait for a fire truck?"
For more than 100 years, Northampton Township's Fire Company has been run by volunteers.
"Volunteers are the gems of the community," Selisker said. "I mean, they really have done this for so long for free because they want to help their community."
But this past Sunday, Selisker brought on 10 full-time paid firefighters who will work out of the firehouse and staff a dedicated first-out-the-door truck 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - reducing response times in a township as large as Northampton from a minimum of several minutes to just 60 seconds.
"The volunteers are still very important and we still need them to man the additional trucks," Selisker said.
Northampton first started this combination program of volunteer and career firefighters back in 2009 as volunteers began to decline and emergency calls were trending up.
Right now, the township has about 40 volunteer firefighters, but still needs 30 more to be fully staffed.
"It does happen at times where we have to stretch and go much further out of the township to other departments to get enough people," Selisker said.
In total, Northampton Township employs 22 paid firefighters at a cost of $2 million, including salary and benefits. It's funded in part by taxpayer dollars and state and federal grant funding.
Northampton Township will be bringing on additional career firefighters in the coming years.