Dwindling number of volunteers for CC firefighters becomes major concern at town hall

A June 3 joint town hall meeting gave citizens the opportunity to ask questions to either Charles City’s Board of Supervisors or Charles City School Board members. And while very few took advantage of the open forum, it was a question from one resident to county leaders that continues to haunt the county.

Linda Maines approached the podium with concerns over the county’s fire department. Her inquiries about county involvement to address the issue led to her asking questions to county supervisors.

“I saw a house burn down recently,” she said, commenting on a May 1 fire on Adkins Road. “I want to know if the board is doing anything about this situation.

“What do we do to raise community awareness?” she asked. “I don’t know how it is around here but from the talks that when the house burned down it was ‘business as usual’.”

District 1 representative and board chairman Gilbert Smith, who also represents the supervisors in meetings with the fire department, went into a monologue about the ongoing issue of the lack of volunteers to meet the emergency needs of citizens.

“We’ve been singing the same song for several years,” Smith began. “We have seven active volunteers on the fire department squad who represent 7,000 people.

“The problem is getting citizens involved,” he continued. “A majority of those who volunteer there now are getting up in age and have full-time jobs. It’s sad that we don’t have volunteers to step up to the plate.

“We have the equipment, but we have no volunteers,” Smith added. “We have been in talks with neighboring counties who are also struggling with the same issue.”

Smith spoke about one particular volunteer, fire chief Archer Jones Jr., who travels from Newport News where he works directly to the fire department.

“He goes to work around 7 a.m. in the morning, leaves there and heads directly to the fire department and doesn’t get home until after 10 p.m.,” Smith commented.

District 3 supervisor Floyd Miles Sr. and at-large school board member Preston Adkins, both whom served as volunteer firefighters, said that changes with requirements mandated by the state has changed the whole outlook on recruiting volunteers.

“When we got started, it wasn’t mandatory to have training,” Miles said. “Now, you have firefighter levels one, two, and three.

“A lot of time is required to reach that and restrictions have been put on by the state,” the supervisor continued. “Most of our volunteers have a full-time job and if there is a fire at 5:30 a.m. in the morning and that person has to be at work at 6 a.m., does that volunteer go to their job or do they try to put out the fire?

“This is something we got to address,” Miles continued. “Even if you had all paid firefighters, it’s not going to solve all the issues.”

“If you don’t have Firefighter One, you can’t even go into a burning building,” added Adkins. “I know you have to have 200 hours of training to reach that.”

The number Adkins mentioned was somewhat accurate, according to Jones who sat down for an interview on the struggles the fire department was facing.

“In order to become a firefighter one, you have to have 160 hours of training, but you can’t receive that until you undergo 32 hours of Hazmat courses as a prerequisite,” Jones said. “That also doesn’t include 16 hours of training learning to drive a fire truck.”

Jones continued, speaking of the number of training hours needed to become Firefighter Two and Firefighter Three. Certification is also compliant with passing a test. And even with certification as a firefighter complete, it is a separate entity to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). EMT certification also requires 150 hours of training, excluding prerequisites and training courses to operate the vehicle.

“Right now, we have five active people who are certified with two currently in training,” the fire chief added. “Those who are here are dedicated and we are doing the best of what we have.”

When asked about the May 1 fire, Jones laid a timeline of events that he as well as fellow firefighters went through as an example of what difficulties the volunteers face.

“I went to work and got off to attend a special event that was scheduled with one other senior officer and a trainee that evening,” he said. “While at that event, we received the call around 5:30 p.m. and the only two who were available in the area were two inexperienced volunteers. When we received the call, it was already halfway engulfed in flames.

“We had an unfortunate incident where the truck broke down on scene as neighboring counties were on their way to assist,” he continued. “We left the function and made our way back and to the fire.”

Jones and the other volunteers were on the scene from 5:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. the next morning. But their night wasn’t done.

“Just after we put out the fire, we received a call about an accident on Route 106 (Roxbury Road),” he continued. “We left the fire and went to the scene and had to use the ‘Jaws of Life’ and extricate the person from the vehicle.

“In all, we didn’t return home until 7:30 a.m. that morning, and some of us had to return to work later on that afternoon,” Jones concluded.

At the board meeting, at-large school board member Steve Fuhrmann commented both as a representative and as a concerned citizen.

“There have been talks about bringing a Fire/EMS program to Bridging Communities Career and Technical Center,” Fuhrmann said. “It’s making slow progress, but the problem is that we haven’t really gauged the interest of students who are interested in that field.

“I also think that we need to have one or two paid firefighters as well,” he continued. “We are going to have to think about the resources needed to do that.”

As far as volunteering, Jones said there has been many outreach efforts made to the community.

“We attend all functions from the county fair to community day to the Charles City Republican and Charles City Democratic conventions,” he said. “There is only so much we can do but we continuously put ourselves out there and let others know we need help. We have thought about petitioning churches as well to see if anyone will get involved.”

“I want to thank [Henrico Fire] Chief Anthony McDowell and [New Kent Fire] Chief Rick Opett for their support as we continue to look for volunteers for our department,” Jones concluded.

Smith invited those in attendance to volunteer or just come to a meeting to see the business discussed by the firefighter’s board.

“I encourage everyone to see how hard these volunteers work,” Smith concluded, inviting them to the meeting at Station 1 (Adkins Road) that is held the second Tuesday of each month.