Staff Photo by Dan Henry East Ridge Fire Fighter Engineer Randy Albright, left, and FF Eng. Daniel Walston waits for a call while at station #2 off of Camp Jordan Parkway on Monday evening. Local fire departments are having a hard time fining volunteers which is believed to be in part due to the economy.

Volunteer firefighters have less time to volunteer, fire chiefs say.

And it’s all about the money — or lack of it.

“In the times that we’re in right now, people need money,” said Doug Flury, battalion chief with Fort Oglethorpe Fire and Rescue.

“A man that works five days a week or on mill shifts for 12 hours can’t afford to take off if he’s got a family,” said South Pittsburg Fire Chief Freddie Cook.

Fire departments in both Tennessee and Georgia are seeing fewer volunteers and those who do volunteer are cutting back their time to pick up paying jobs elsewhere, fire chiefs say.

Though no exact numbers are available, Mike Hancock, public safety training manager with the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council, said recently that he’s seen the problem across Georgia at many departments.

Chief Flury, who heads a department with seven full-time firefighters, two part-time firefighters and 70 volunteers covering a town of about 9,500, said fewer volunteers coming through the door means older volunteers must pick up the slack.

“What you’ll see is more burnout of volunteers,” he said.

Staff Photo by Margaret Fenton Volunteer firefighter Will Blevins climbs into the cab of an engine Monday morning at the Rossville Fire Department during a routine check of the truck's amenities.

Gary McGhee has balanced full-time work as a drug sales representative and volunteer time as a firefighter for nearly 30 years and said the juggling act is tough, but necessary to do what he loves.

But it was different in years past, he said. In his early days as a volunteer firefighter, “we’d have so many people, they couldn’t all fit on the truck,” he said.

The 61-year-old Fort Oglethorpe battalion chief said young men and women seem to have a lot of commitments pulling them in different directions, which makes devoting time to volunteering difficult.

“We train hard but it takes that commitment and, unless you’ve got a supportive family, it probably will not work out because of the time constraints,” he said.

The same problem faces C.R. Harris, chief of the Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Department, which covers an area that stretches from the Chattanooga city limits to the Meigs County line.

“We can’t hardly get volunteers anymore, all of the young people have other things to do,” he said.

Though departments across the region may see dwindling numbers of volunteers now, the impact on Insurance Services Offices ratings may be years away, said David Colmans, executive director for the Georgia Insurance Information Service. ISO ratings determine the insurance rate local businesses and homeowners will pay in the fire department’s service area.

It’s too soon to address concerns that a department’s response time may go up because of fewer volunteer firefighters, he said.

“This situation is very new given the economic conditions are very new,” Mr. Colmans said.

All-volunteer or volunteer-heavy fire departments must constantly work on bringing in new recruits, he said. Local businesses also must be educated about letting employees who are volunteer firefighters leave work if they get a fire call, he said.

In Fort Oglethorpe, Chief McGhee interviews new applicants and he doesn’t sugarcoat the job description.

“Don’t quit your day job, because the money’s not there,” he tells prospective firefighters while also explaining the rigors of training and dangers in the fire service.

Some departments pay hourly rates to volunteers while they are on the scene, but not for training, which has become a requirement to fight fires in Tennessee.

Beginning July 1, all firefighters, regardless of full-time, part-time or volunteer, must complete 16 hours of initial training and finish a basic firefighting course at the Tennessee Fire Academy or an equivalent.

Chief Cook said most volunteers can’t take off work to attend training in Bell Buckle, where the academy is based about an hour south of Nashville.

South Pittsburg has four full-time firefighters, including the chief, and 24 volunteers to cover the town of about 3,500 people.

Few courses are offered during the week and budget cutbacks may limit satellite courses offered through the state, he said.

Chatsworth, Ga., Fire Chief Michael Baxter said the department’s previous chief saw potential problems with unpaid volunteers in 2000, so the department established an hourly rate for volunteers. At about $9 an hour, the chief said the pay won’t work as a primary income, but helps those who want to volunteer rather than take on a second job instead.

The Chatsworth Fire Department has 11 full-time firefighters, including the chief, and 16 part-time firefighters who are not considered volunteers.

The Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Department had 90 volunteers just a few years ago, Chief Harris said, but that number is down to 65. Most volunteers work full-time day jobs, so daytime fire calls are hard to staff, said Chief Harris, whose department covers 120 square miles with more than 15,000 households.

LaFayette, Ga., Public Safety Director Tommy Freeman, who heads both the fire and police department for the town, said many younger volunteers often quit because they didn’t understand the level of time and training required for the fire service.

To answer fire calls and cover strained departments, most fire departments operate on mutual aid, which sends all available departments to the scene, he noted. Often different departments will relieve each other, since many have just enough firefighters to work the call, he said.