Some equipment and staffing challenges remain, but Fairfax County’s 12 volunteer fire departments are positioning themselves for ongoing improvement after a solid fiscal year that ended June 30.
That was the message delivered by Fairfax Volunteer Fire Commission chair Shawn Stokes to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (Oct. 8).
“Overall, we provided almost 192,000 hours of collective service last [fiscal] year — a 15% increase,” said Stokes, who also serves as chief of the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Department.
Dunn Loring and the other volunteer departments are part of the Fairfax County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, founded 95 years ago. Each member is an independent entity.
About 300 operational volunteers, coupled with additional support personnel, augment services of the career firefighters with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. They provide exemplary and needed service to their neighbors, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
“Most of our residents have no idea of the depth of expertise” the volunteers possess, he said.
The volunteer fire departments are continuing to recover from a decline in staffing during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteer hours dropped 31% from 2019 to 2020, which saw the lowest level of participation since tracking begain in 2007, according to the volunteer fire association’s 2020 annual report.
The departments recorded 153,094 volunteer hours in 2020. In comparison, the next lowest year was 2008, which had 184,963 hours.
“The largest contributors to the decline were members unable to operate in the field due to elevated personal, family, or job-related COVID risk factors, conservation of personal protective equipment due to shortages, and strategic decisions to limit exposure to career personnel and hold volunteer personnel in reserve,” the report said.
While the 2024 annual report hasn’t been made available online, Stokes told the Board of Supervisors that the association is continuing to make its efforts to recruit and retain volunteers more effective, including by creating a new recruitment video funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and centering leadership training for volunteers.
Stokes called that last approach “a tremendous step in the right direction.”
“Better-run organizations are better positioned to retain their members,” he said.
Questioned by Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, Stokes said the volunteer departments are in “a far better place” on vehicle maintenance than they were at the start of the year, having collaborated with county fire officials to address the situation.
Many of the volunteer departments, however, continue to struggle with the spiraling costs for fire trucks, ambulances and other vehicles and equipment.
Nationally, about two-thirds of the nation’s firefighters are volunteers, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council. Fewer than one in 10 of the nearly 30,000 fire departments in the country are staffed solely by paid professionals, the organization says.
Collectively, those volunteers provide about $47 billion a year in service to their communities, based on a 2017 report.
This week (Oct. 6-12) is being marked as Fire Prevention Week in Fairfax County and across the nation. The theme for 2024 is “Smoke Alarms: Make Them Work for You.” The annual fire-safety week dates to the 1920s.
