COURT HOUSE – As times change, the volunteer fire companies have to adapt and come up with ways to bring new members into them. For Middle Township Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, the newest effort is ‘Friday Night At The Firehouse.’

Fire Company Vice President John Schwakoff said volunteerism among fire companies around the nation is down. One way he hopes to build interest in serving as a volunteer is to hold an event that brings families into the firehouse, where they can gain a better understanding of what the fire company does – and at what level.

“We average over 500 calls per year,” Schwakoff said.

Middle Township, like other areas, has held events to bring people around and at least introduce them to the fire service. Schwakoff said Middle Township Fire used to have bingo at a campground in the summer. The campground was sold to a corporate entity, he said, which was not motivated to get licensed with the state for bingo, so the fire company decided to have events at the firehouse.

“We’ve had a lot of support from other agencies – the (Cape May County) Sheriff’s Office, Wawa, (Philly) Pretzel Factory, Westside Market…” Schwakoff said.

The fire company sets up activities for children, such as the knock-down house, where they spray water at a cutout house, putting out fake fires in the windows.

“We try to make it a community thing,” he said.

Schwakoff said Middle Township Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 has about 40 members, of which about 15 are very active members. Fire Company President Michael Clark said there are longtime members who still come out to meetings, but are not likely to fight fires.

Schwakoff and representatives from other fire companies mentioned they are finding it hard to get and keep members.

“When you are averaging over 500 calls per year, that’s a big commitment,” he said.

Stone Harbor Fire Chief Roger Stanford said when he started as a firefighter in the 1980s, Stone Harbor would get 100 calls per year. This year, the Stone Harbor Fire Department responded to 106 calls in July alone.

“The call volume increases every year,” he said.

Schwakoff said he feels the new generation is not as inclined to volunteer as in the past. In fact, the firefighters who spoke to the Herald tended to come from a line of firefighters. Stanford said he is the third generation of firefighters in his family. Villas Fire Chief Bill Belles said you can see the same names around the firehouse all the time – Harron, McCloskey, Jordan, and so on.

“It’s hard to ask a 14-year-old kid who isn’t already involved in the fire service to get involved,” Belles said.

However, fire companies are reaching out to younger children with the intention of getting them interested in the fire service.

Middle Township holds the ‘Friday Night At The Firehouse’ as a children’s event, with the intention of getting some adults involved, but the children are also being exposed to the fire service.

In Stone Harbor, the fire department holds a ‘Family Night’ every Thursday in the summer, as it has for the last 30 or 35 years. The firehouse is located in the downtown area and is open every day, but they make more of an effort to invite the public in on Thursdays.

Belles said the Villas Fire Company is planning an open house Sept. 30, which will be geared more toward recruitment. He said the company has been out at a number of events trying to stir up interest, including National Night Out and a Lower Township Chamber of Commerce event at the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum.

“We’ve been to several events. We were at the 4-H Fair and worked a booth with other fire departments,” Belles said.

Barriers to Volunteering

Schwakoff said sometimes people are just unaware of their local volunteer fire company.

“I was never really aware of it and I grew up around the corner from the firehouse,” he said.

Schwakoff said he thinks there is a trend of moving away from hands-on skills, saying some of the schools are doing away with shop classes and people can’t work on their cars anymore. He said when there are problems with cars these days, they simply plug in a computer to find out what is wrong. The same is true when there is a car accident.

“Some vehicles have up to 20 air bags, and you don’t want them to blow up with the victim in car,” he said. “You can do as much injury to the person as the accident.”

Some of the fire chiefs pointed out that its hard these days to get paid employees let alone ask people to volunteer. Schwakoff said he doesn’t know of any police department that is fully staffed, and the volunteer fire companies essentially compete for the volunteers’ time.

In Stone Harbor, the fire department had to go to a combination of volunteers and paid staff. The Stone Harbor Fire Department now has nine paid firefighters supplemented by 20 volunteers.

The time commitment it takes to be a volunteer firefighter is a big deterrent for a lot of people. The training for what is called Firefighter 1 was 180 hours six years ago. Belles said it is in excess of 200 hours now.

Rogers said the training is done over two evenings per week and one weekend day until the hours are met. After they graduate from the fire academy, there are monthly meetings and drills, as required by the company. Then, the individual has to be willing to get up from the dinner table or get out of bed to fight a fire, perhaps to find out it was a false alarm.

“Lots of times, even when guys get in, they didn‘t realize the commitment,” Clark said. “They want to volunteer but it’s a big commitment.”

Then, there are some businesses that won’t allow their employees to leave work to fight a fire, Belles said.

Clark said Middle Township Fire Company No. 1 now has five or six people in the fire academy. Stone Harbor has one person. Schwakoff said in the 1980s to early 1990s, there was a waiting list to join the fire company. Now, all the first responders are looking for new members.

What Will the Community Do?

Schwakoff said getting into the schools these days to promote volunteering in the fire service is very difficult. He said everybody loves firefighters during Firefighter Education Week, but after that, the schools don’t push the agenda.

On the other hand, the Cape May County Technical School is offering a Firefighter 1 class that will allow the students to be certified once they turn 18 and have completed the classwork.

The members of the current volunteer fire service say they hope the course at the technical school and the events they hold will inspire some individuals to become volunteer firefighters because without them, communities are going to have to go to hiring paid firefighters.

Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.