Firefighters cut corners to save gas

WASHINGTON -- Now that diesel prices have jumped well beyond $4 a gallon, the volunteer rescuers who protect most of North Carolina and the United States have begun to rethink how they respond to emergencies.

In state after state, volunteer fire chiefs are leaving big pumpers and ladder trucks back at the station. They're cutting out-of-town training for firefighters. They're dipping into the equipment budgets to save money and clustering errands to save mileage.

"It may slow our response time some," said Chief Wesley Hutchins of the Walkertown Volunteer Fire Department outside Winston-Salem. "It's just a different way of thinking. As a citizen, you expect us to be there to throw everything we've got at it."

Instead, Hutchins leaves his big trucks back at the station for many calls these days. He cut back on daily hydrant maintenance, stopped sending his pumper truck to automatic fire alarms, and won't be buying that 3,000 feet of new water hose he was planning on this year.

"That one piece of hose we cut, maybe we'll put duct tape on it," Hutchins said. "You have to be more creative."

Issue is nationwide

The problems are the same across the country, where more than two-thirds of the geography is protected by an estimated 800,000 volunteers. Most of them work in rural areas, where rescuers must drive long distances to emergencies and often rely on donations from spaghetti dinners and bingo nights.

Congress is trying to respond with several bills, including one by Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., that would increase the tax deduction for mileage on firefighters' personal vehicles.

"A lot of these [departments] are already struggling financially," said David Finger, vice president for government affairs for the National Volunteer Fire Council in Washington.

In most of the United States, volunteers are the ones who throw on heavy suits and hop onto trucks to respond to emergencies ranging from forest fires to car wrecks to medical calls.

In North Carolina, there are an estimated 39,000 volunteer firefighters and about 9,000 career firefighters. In the Triangle, for example, fire departments in places such as southern Durham County, Zebulon, Knightdale, Fuquay-Varina and Apex are run at least partly by volunteers.

Their smallest vehicles -- pickups or SUVs -- get about 20 miles to the gallon. Ladder trucks get worse gas mileage.

"Some of these big trucks, they only get three or four miles to the gallon," said Kenn Fontenot, assistant chief of the LeBlanc Volunteer Fire Department in south-central Louisiana and a state director for the National Volunteer Fire Council. "They cost $600 to $700 to fill up. That's some money right there."

Rural departments haven't seen this kind of gas crisis since the early 1980s, Fontenot said. Now, it has caused a ripple effect through agencies' budgets.

In Western North Carolina, Cherryville Fire Chief Jeff Cash sends a smaller brush truck (11 mpg) to many calls instead of a pumper truck (8 to 9 mpg). His firefighters have skipped out-of-town training, and he has asked them not to take the trucks to grab lunch or buy groceries.

"I feel like the problem's going to be here awhile," said Cash, who is on the board of directors for the National Volunteer Fire Council.

In at least one department, firefighters chose to skip community parades because they couldn't afford to drive the routes. "We made the decision earlier this year," said Ed Mann, who volunteers as assistant chief in Mifflin County, Pa., where he is also the state fire commissioner.

Efforts in Congress

Several efforts in Congress are aimed at easing volunteer firefighters' struggles.

Hayes has a bill to increase mileage-rate tax deductions for firefighters responding to emergencies -- from 14 cents a mile to 44.5 cents a mile.

Another bill, by U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., would allow tax deductions for volunteer firefighters' travel expenses of as much as $250 on personal vehicles when responding to emergencies.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, both Pennsylvania Democrats, introduced legislation this week that sets up federal grants for fire stations within the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Casey estimates the program would cost $50 million a year.

"What is the cost of not doing it?" Casey asked. "I don't want some rural family on some rural road experiencing a fire and a vehicle running out of gas and someone dying."