County fire chiefs awarded grant money

By Joel Metzger | Posted: Friday, February 15, 2013 10:13 am

$1.8 million could help with shortage of firefighters

More than $1.8 million in grant money awarded to the Calaveras County Fire Chief’s Association will hopefully help address a growing safety concern – a vast shortage of volunteer firefighters.

At last count, the county’s 11 fire protection districts were about 233 bodies short of the 450-plus firefighters needed to protect the county.

“We’re very deficient in the county. We have very few people who are participating,” said Consolidated Fire Authority Chief Kim Olson. “Those who do participate are going over and above to provide the service in this county. We need to bring some more people on board.”

To illustrate the daily struggle fire protection districts face, Olsen gave the example of receiving multiple calls in a short period of time.

“A lot of districts can put that first engine on the street on that first call,” he said. “When the second call that comes in or the third call after that, we’re scrambling. If we had more people, as additional calls come in, they could step up and take those calls rather than having to wait for other districts to respond.”

In the world of emergency responders, every minute counts.

Olson said if a fire engine can leave the station within 30 seconds of a call and arrive at a burning structure within four-to-six minutes, the blaze can often be contained to a room and contents fire rather than a fully engulfed house. Almost the same time frame applies when responding to some medical calls.

“If a person has a cardiac arrest, you have brain damage after six minutes,” he said. “You try to get a first responder there oxygenating and doing CPR within four-to-six minutes.”

“If we can get enough volunteers, homes can be saved and we’ll have viable patients.”

To address the volunteer shortage, Olsen spearheaded the application for a grant to help recruit and retain volunteers over the next four years. The Redden Group, which specializes in applying for and managing grants such as this, helped the association write the grant.

It was awarded in September of last year by the Department of Homeland Security.

This extra money is especially needed with the steep decline in property values. Property taxes are directly linked to the funding of fire protection districts, meaning many have been forced to operate on very lean budgets.

“When property values go down, our budgets go down,” Olson said. “We depend more and more on volunteers because we can’t afford to hire paid firefighters. I don’t think a lot of people realize that.”

Until more volunteers come forward, citizens are at risk because of the lack of firefighters to adequately protect people and property from fire and other hazards, according to a release from the Redden Group, an Idaho-based consultant administering the grant.

“They are outstanding,” Olsen said. “They are going above and beyond what my expectations were.”

Lyndsay Salb, grant administrator for the Redden Group, said she is optimistic about bolstering firefighter numbers and is looking forward to working throughout the county to recruit volunteers.

“We’ve met with media outlets throughout the area,” she said. “There is a lot of interest to get the word out that there is a need for emergency responders. I think it’s going to be a great success. Everybody is willing to help, so I couldn’t be happier.”

As call volume increases, more departments depend on volunteer firefighters, the release said. Calaveras County’s 11 departments serve a rural area of 45,578 people and provide fire protection and rescue service to 1,020 square miles of rural area. The 11 agencies respond to structure fires, wildland fires, medical emergencies, water rescue, technical rope rescue, hazardous materials spills, public service assistance and other emergencies, the release said. Calaveras County fire agencies protect an area that is 66 percent rural wild land, 21 percent residential and 3 percent commercial.

In order to meet this need, more county residents will be asked to step up to the plate and volunteer.

To facilitate this process, the grant money will be used for two specific purposes, recruitment and retention, Olson said.

“The Redden Group is going to help us recruit at places like the Frog Jump, on radio, in the Calaveras Enterprise, putting banners up at fire stations and with open houses,” he continued. “We’d like to have a booth any place where we have large venues of people where we can get the word out about volunteering.”

Once people volunteer, the second part of the grant is designed to keep them.

Calaveras County fire agencies have implemented a “cafeteria” benefit program where each firefighter is able to personalize this benefit to meet their needs. The IRS-regulated cafeteria program includes the option for each volunteer to choose one benefit to motivate them to continue volunteering. Benefits include a tax-deferred 401k contribution, medical and dental insurance premiums, dependent care expense and advanced education expenses, i.e. college tuition.

These benefits will only be available to active members who meet the Standards of Performance and are in good standing with their chief.

“Each district came up with a point value system,” Olsen said. “You have to have some tool to measure the productivity of your volunteers. So speaking for us, we have a 20 point system. If you go to calls, training, if you complete online training and pull 24-hour shifts, you’re awarded points. If you attain 10 points a month, you’ll get $50 dollar benefit. If you attain 20 points, you get the full $100 benefit. Volunteers can choose where that money goes. The majority of the people so far have chosen that benefit to go into a 401k retirement fund.”

“My hope is instead of having between 50-and-55 percent, I’d like to see 90-to-95 percent of the volunteers needed. If we can get to100 percent, I’d be thrilled.”