The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — They run bingos and sell raffle tickets. They hold street fairs and membership drives. It’s no way to run a fire department, but in Pennsylvania, where most people and property are protected by volunteers, it’s the norm.
It would be one thing if volunteer firefighters were a growing contingent, but a 2005 state study showed just the opposite: 72,000 men and women were staffing local unpaid departments compared to 300,000 in 1976.
The dilemma: How do you get more people to give up their free time to take safety training, learn lifesaving techniques, maintain a station and its sophisticated vehicles and, most important, drop everything when the alarm sounds?
State Sen. Michael O’Pake of Berks County had a good idea, but it took five years to enact. Last week the governor signed into law Mr. O’Pake’s proposal, the first state income tax credit for Pennsylvania’s active volunteer fire and ambulance personnel. The statute, which is similar to incentives in New York and Maryland, will provide active volunteers with a $100 tax credit.
It’s hard to say how many new responders will show up for duty at community fire companies because of the offer. But if Pennsylvania is going to place so much stock in the rescue skills of volunteers, it must take steps like these to recruit and retain more of them.
Copyright 2008 P.G. Publishing Co.