Fire departments throughout Pennsylvania facing a shortage of volunteers, could get some extra help from state legislators.
The assistance wouldn't be in the form of helping hands, but rather financial incentives to attract more firefighters.
The Shiloh station of the West Manchester Township Fire Department is one that relies 100 percent on volunteers, and its chief isn’t alone in the search for volunteers .
Finding enough volunteers to fill the boots is a common problem for many fire chiefs in Pennsylvania like West Manchester Township Fire chief Cliff Laughman.
"Unfortunately, volunteers across the country, is dwindling in the fire service, and I think we need to do anything we can to help get those volunteers back in," Laughman said.
One of the reasons fire departments have difficulty finding volunteers is the 144 hours of initial training time required to become a firefighter.
"It’s just hours and hours of training. Some fire departments rely on fundraising, so there’s lots of hours of fundraising involved to keep fire houses open. So it’s a very big time commitment. Unfortunately in today’s society, a lot of people don’t have that commitment," Laughman said.
It's estimated that the number of volunteer firefighters in the state has dropped from about 350,000 in the 1970s to about 49,000 today.
State represenative Jamie Santora (R-Delaware County) said "however, within that count, if a fire fighter volunteers at three different fire companies, that’s three volunteers, is how they count it. So we’re really at about 30,000 to 35,000."
One solution to boost those numbers could come from Santora's desk with his proposal, House Bill 2110.
"What it would do is, it would allow up to $5,000 in scholarship money, to attend college of your choice, in Pennsylvania, or other programs as well, as long as it’s higher education," Santora said.
"Before I became the fire chief, I worked in education, in the financial aid industries, so I know first hand, how difficult it is to find aid to go to college. I think this bill that’s being proposed will certainly help with that," Laughman said.
The bill proposes that volunteer firefighters would receive that money to spend on furthering their education, and pay it back with five years of their time at their local, home fire department.
"That’s what we’re trying to do, is make sure that the fire department you’re originally with, can count your number, and know that you’re going to remain with them for five years, and do runs, and actively participate in that fire house," Santora said.
"We have struggled over the past couple years. I can’t deny that. We try everything we can, here at West Manchester. We have retention programs where we try to make it more enticing for volunteers. We’ll give them incentives, but sometimes it just doesn’t always work," Laughman said.
Santora hopes to get the program started in its first year with about $10 million dollars. Funding for the program would come from local businesses that would get a tax break in return for their participation.