The firehouse dynamic has changed since Glen Tomlinson was 16 and took his first class in Daleville Fire Department’s cadet program. Back then, volunteers were mostly older and often farmers available for emergency calls day and night.
They could park their tractor in the field and race to a midafternoon house fire or roll out of bed when fire tones sounded at 5 a.m. with no concerns about clocking in late at work.
“Those days are gone,” Tomlinson, now 42 and chief of the Daleville Fire Department, said. “The majority of our department now are between 18 and 22, which is great, but we have fewer people with a lot of years experience where everything is second nature for them.”
Nowadays, most people work jobs they can’t abandon when there’s a house fire or car crash. Some longtime volunteers are too old or infirm to speed to the station or emergency scene when someone calls 911.
“It’s daytime coverage that’s the hardest part because most of our volunteers work normal jobs,” Tomlinson said.
Salem Township Trustee Trina Morgan-Richardson said the number of emergency calls for Daleville has more than doubled since 2016. She remembers how it used to be, when a volunteer force was enough.
“When there was a fire call that came in years ago, you could just drop (everything) at your job and take off,” she said. “It was sort of this professional courtesy everyone understood. You are heading out to fight a fire, thank you very much, we appreciate your service.”
Fire departments like hers, once staffed solely by volunteers, have had to change their way of doing business because of the shortage. They’re finding ways to raise money and awareness of the need for volunteers.
Daleville, for example, formed the Salem Township Fire Territory nearly a decade ago in order to receive tax dollars to cover costs that include equipment, turnout gear and paying staff.
And in October, Daleville was among 25 volunteer-based fire departments across 13 states that opened their doors for special events to generate interest and recruit, according to the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The events allowed citizens to “meet firefighters and see what it takes to serve their community,” a news release said.
A small crew
Daleville’s three-bay fire station, built in 1976, is small but able to contain the department’s 13 vehicles and firefighting apparatus.
“We park the trucks sideways to get them in, but it works,” Tomlinson said.
Tomlinson is the department’s only full-time employee. Six part-time firefighter/EMTs are paid to cover the station — which covers Salem Township’s 40 square miles near the junction of Ind. 67 and I-69 — during the day.
A roster of 53 volunteers staff the station at night. That guarantees drivers and EMTs for all three ambulances and on-station crews of three or four firefighters around the clock.
Recruiting new members is ongoing, Tomlinson said, and important for the rural system to remain stable and have the resources needed when emergencies strike. His department’s fire trucks and three ambulances have responded to more than 1,100 calls so far this year. He’s proud of their 47-second average response time.
“Outside the city of Muncie, we are the busiest in the county when it comes to call volume,” he said, responding to everything from falls to traffic accidents to fires.
The department offers free EMT and firefighter training to volunteer recruits and pays for their gear. They receive fuel and clothing stipends and get paid $5 to $20 per call, depending on how many show up. They work eight six-hour shifts per month and must be at the station unless they live within 1.5 miles.
Seventeen recruits completed the department’s firefighting class in September and are scheduled to start EMT training in January. Tomlinson expects about half will stay on as Daleville volunteers. He said training volunteers for both duties strengthens the department.
Five teenage cadets are in training, and Tomlinson said a new partnership with the Daleville school system will allow high school students to get credits for EMT courses.
“Since I’ve been chief, I’ve looked at ways we can increase recruitment and retention,” Tomlinson said. “It’s something fire departments across the U.S. are focusing on.”
Daleville’s pork chop dinner has been a fall tradition since the 1990s. Tomlinson said events like this, as well as their 20,000-egg hunt at Easter, free Halloween chili supper, fire station movie nights and a one-day summer camp, keep the community aware of the men and women — most of them volunteers — who show up when rural residents call 911.
“The idea is to get young people interested and to strengthen our relationship with the community,” Tomlinson said. “Because once a fire or police department loses that close connection, it can be gone for a long time.”
Freelancer Jeffrey Dreyer contributed to the reporting for this article. He can be reached at jeffwdreyer@gmail.com.
FPI News reporter Laura Lane covers the people and issues of rural Indiana. Reach her at 812-760-1540 or laura.lane@fpinews.org.
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