A change to Pennsylvania law that took effect this month will give volunteer fire departments more flexibility.

Senate Bill 1027 amended the Child Labor Act.

According to the change, junior firefighters who are 17 years old and have permission from a fire chief or parent or guardian may now enter a burning building in Pennsylvania.

“This change will help to train our next generation,” Warren County Fire Services President Rich Barrett said. “The previous law made it so the junior members were very limited in what they could do and, quite honestly, they would become bored due to the limitations.”

“Until this legislation was passed, junior firefighters were only allowed to be on the fireground for support duties,” Barrett said. “They were not allowed to enter a building until the incident was determined extinguished and then were only allowed to provide clean-up work in exterior of the structure.”

“During a recent structure burn training, there were about eight junior members in attendance,” he said.

Encouraging those members to stay on and growing for the future are major points of emphasis for the departments.

“There are many times when departments are responding with only two members to an apparatus due to lack of manpower,” he said. “Most departments have implemented an automatic mutual aid of several departments to get more manpower on scene for an initial attack.”

“All of the fire departments need more help and would appreciate help in all aspects,” Barrett said. “If you are not interested in being a firefighter-EMT, there maybe a position that you could fill in an administrative office to help.”

“There isn’t a department that couldn’t use some help,” he said.