While much of the focus of the emergency services crisis has focused on ambulance service, officials have cautioned that similar staffing concerns regarding the fire service are on the horizon.

Sen. Scott Hutchinson in his most recent newsletter highlighted a bill aimed at “increasing the number of volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania by reforming the certification process without sacrificing quality or safety.”

Senate Bill 1101 was approved 48-0 by the Senate earlier this month. It’s now before a House committee.

The bill specifically focuses on the training process for the “Firefighter 1” certification.

“Current firefighter applicants must complete four training modules totaling 188 hours,” Hutchinson said. “They then must pass a cumulative test covering all four modules. Senate Bill 1101 would enable applicants to be tested following each of the four modules.”

The bill was sponsored by Sens. Doug Mastriano and Michele Brooks.

They say in a legislative memo that the legislation is the outgrowth of a “roundtable discussion with fire members and conversations with the State Fire Commissioner….”

The draft bill gives both the opportunity for a cumulative exam or the individual tests after each model.

“In the 1970s, the commonwealth had as many as 300,000 volunteer firefighters,” Hutchinson said. “There currently are fewer than 38,000 volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania.”