There are about 20 volunteer fire departments in Warren County. They respond to fire, medical, public service, and other calls in and around their areas. They work together to serve their communities.

There are many “highly trained and dedicated individuals” working in the volunteer fire departments throughout the county, according to Warren County Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison. “I have to praise the guys who are still doing it. They are putting forth the effort and getting out of bed at 2 in the morning.”

“They are what’s keeping our departments going,” McCorrison said.

The county’s fire volunteers have traditionally been the primary responders everywhere outside of the City of Warren. The city has a paid fire department.

The problem is that there aren’t as many of those highly trained and dedicated individuals as there used to be.

Departments throughout the county “are struggling with manpower and recruitment issues,” he said.

The closure of a fire department is unprecedented in the county. According to McCorrison, there have been two departments – Sheffield and North Warren – that shut down their ambulance services and the City of Warren closed a secondary station. The county’s All-Hazards Response Team folded when regulations surrounding manpower and equipment needs were increased.

When the leaders of Conewango Township and the Starbrick Volunteer Fire Department announced last week that the department was on an unsustainable path and faced a very real possibility of closure, they were simply the first to admit the seriousness of the problem that faces many.

The good news for residents in that department’s coverage area is that they are surrounded by other departments.

In other places, departments are on more of an island – with the next fire hall and equipment some distance away.

McCorrison recently met with leaders of the Grand Valley and Tidioute departments.

“We recently had a meeting with multiple municipalities in the southern part of Warren County,” he said.

Grand Valley serves Southwest and Eldred townships. Tidioute is the primary department for Tidioute Borough, and Watson, Limestone, and Deerfield townships.

The two departments have mutual aid agreements and work together regularly.

“We pulled all of them together and it was the first that I’m aware of that all of the municipalities sat in one room with the fire departments that serve them,” McCorrison said. “We had an open and honest conversation – financial stability, manpower stability, outlook, best practices… where they stood and what help they could use.”

The leaders of both Grand Valley and Tidioute “expressed that they were significantly short on manpower, especially during the the day during the week,” McCorrison said. “The leaders are doing everything they can. I haven’t talked to anybody that wasn’t willing to try something new to fix the problem.”

He said he will continue to bring fire and municipal leaders together to come up with solutions to looming problems.

There is only so much a handful of “highly trained and dedicated individuals” can do.

At many departments, “five or six guys are running 80 percent of the calls,” McCorrison said. “And the same guys are filing administrative positions and fundraisers. That’s just not a sustainable business model.”

Finding some support for the firefighters is key. Trained personnel are needed, but even taking some of the administrative load off of those trained personnel would help.

“There are other positions within a fire department that don’t involve fighting fire,” McCorrison said. “Fundraising, helping with buildings and grounds, run meetings. They need people to help with their bingos that they do to raise money.”

The most serious problem is the shortage of manpower. But funding is certainly a looming issue.

“When you look at long-term, a tanker is $750,000,” McCorrison said. “How many chickens can these guys barbecue? How many bingos can they have?”

“There’s a cost to doing business,” he said. “You have to have that equipment there. You have to be able to rely on it – these guys are putting their lives on it to function and function properly.”

Increased levels of collaboration help. Essentially every department has standing agreements with others nearby to respond automatically.

“Even the City of Warren would struggle to do it entirely on their own,” McCorrison said of responding to a structure fire. “Warren Fire Department uses their own resources and depletes their own resources before they call any outside department.”

“The volunteer agencies have built response plans,” he said. “If it’s a fire in this municipality, we’ll have these departments. They can always turn apparatus around if they’re not needed.”

The Columbus Volunteer Fire Department is part of a regional alignment with the City of Corry Fire Department.

There could be more opportunities like that, McCorrison said.

Then, there is the Warren County Career Center’s protective services program.

“Some students have gone on to police officers and firefighters and EMTs within the county,” he said. “I personally hired one of their graduates from last year at the 911 center.”

“We’re investing time and effort into trying to help (teacher and firefighter) Mike Noe,” McCorrison said. “If we can support him, it benefits us all.”

Several departments raise funding with their ambulance services.

In addition to EmergyCare and the City of Warren, there are nine volunteer agencies with ambulance services — Tidioute, Grand Valley, Sugar Grove, Youngsville, Starbrick, Russell, Pleasant, Scandia, and Clarendon, McCorrison said.

Money comes to those departments for the services, but the people are volunteers and have other responsibilities.

“Any volunteer agency out there is doing the best they can to handle their current call volume,” McCorrison said.

But, it’s still up to a handful of “highly trained and dedicated individuals,” he said.

If Starbrick were to close, its calls wouldn’t go away. There will be emergencies and someone will respond. But it creates more work for those already stretched thin.

“That’s 460 extra incidents that someone is going to have to handle,” McCorrison said.

That kind of thing is already happening. Volunteer departments aren’t always able to respond, especially on week days.

“Agencies that are already struggling are now handling other people’s calls,” McCorrison said.

Even for Warren County, the problem is bigger than the county.

Warren County agencies handle calls beyond the borders. The nearest ambulance service for a call to the Blue Jay Bridge in Howe Township, Forest County, are Kane and Clarendon. If those are unavailable, the City of Warren, at 23 miles, is marginally closer than Clarion and Ridgway. It’s not a hypothetical. “Warren City absolutely could be called to Blue Jay Bridge during the day,” McCorrison said.

There is a Save Our Fire Departments town hall meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at Starbrick Fire Department just off Route 6 on Fireman Street.

The focus of that meeting is the status of the Starbrick department.