Where Have All the Firefighters Gone?

We all assume that if our house or apartment catches on fire, within a few minutes a squad of fire trucks will speed to our address and a crew of firefighters will jump out of the vehicles to save us and hopefully our possessions and residence too.

But wait — will we be able to count on this in the future?

According to a story this week in the Hartford Courant (which had the accompanying photo I am using here), a new state study shows the number of firefighters in Connecticut has dropped by at least 50 percent since 2016-17. At that time about 10 years ago there were an estimated 26,800 firefighters. Last year only 13,401 remained.

Volunteer firefighters make up the majority of firefighters; there are now 8,337 of them. The remaining 4,738 are paid employees.

This is troubling: since 2016-17, the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped by 62.7 percent.

Why is this happening? Inadequate pensions and benefits; the dangers of the profession; and the overall decline of volunteerism in our country.

Michael Thurz, the fire chief in the Hartford suburb of Glastonbury, told the Courant’s Livi Stanford that some firefighters are experiencing (get set for a play on words) burnout.

“Do you want to get up in the middle of the night for nothing and answer an automatic fire alarm?” he asked. “You have to decide to do that and have a willingness to do that. The family has to understand what is going on in the middle of the night.”

East Haven Assistant Fire Chief Stephen Alsup, whose department has lost 26 firefighters in the past two years due to retirement, noted: “Firefighting is hard. It takes dedication.”

Avon Fire Chief Bruce Appell: “It is a tough business. It’s the stress of what we do and the things that we see.”

The Courant story told me something I had not realized: cancer is the number one killer of firefighters — 75 percent of line of duty deaths are due to occupational cancer. PFAS (Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have been found in firefighter turnout gear and they are linked to cancer. (Some fire departments are testing gear that is free of PFAS).

With all of these drawbacks and hazards, the average volunteer in Connecticut stays just three to five years in a fire department. And there are fewer volunteers because in today’s tough economy many people are working two or three jobs. That doesn’t leave much time to be a volunteer firefighter.

Peter Brown, president of the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association of Connecticut was the final person quoted by the Courant: “It is a great profession and a noble calling. I do not want to think about the prospect of not being able to recruit enough firefighters to fill all these positions down the road.”

This story captured by attention because my eldest brother has been a volunteer firefighter for more than 60 years. The man is 83!

Of course he no longer runs into burning buildings to save people. Maybe he now sometimes rides in fire trucks instead of marching with his colleagues in town parades. But he is still a member of the fire department in his town in suburban New York.

You could say it’s in his blood. My mother’s father, although never a firefighter himself, had a keen interest in the fires that occurred in his hometown of Hartford. He had a police or fire radio that alerted him to every fire — and sometimes he would jump into his car to go watch firefighters battle the blaze. My mother did the same thing! Sometimes we would go with her.

My eldest brother was the only one in our family to become a firefighter. It just seemed to race his engines. When he reluctantly went off to college in Vermont (my parents insisted he do so) he joined the volunteer fire department there. He probably spent more time responding to fire alarms than studying. After a few months he dropped out of college and came back home to join the local fire department. And he never left it.

About 35 years years ago, when my wife and I were visiting my parents in the town where I was raised, we were having dinner with them and my brother — and the fire alarm sounded. It was a big one: a large store downtown was in flames. My brother immediately jumped up, leaving his meal to go fight the fire. Shortly afterward my wife and I and my parents drove downtown to watch.

There he was: my brother, way up in a “cherry picker,” the ladder apparatus that goes high up to fight a fire in a tall building that’s engulfed in flames. He had his hose trained on it. Amazing! Fearless! Soon afterward the fire was under control, the building and business saved.

My brother, like most war veterans, does not talk about the terrible things he has witnessed as a firefighter. I’m sure he has seen dead bodies and people with horrible injuries. It’s part of his job.

But the social benefits are considerable, and that’s a big part of what keeps him volunteering. My wife and I once attended a meatball dinner fundraiser at his firehouse and we saw first-hand the camaraderie of those volunteers and their families. Yes, there are compensations for all of those times being pulled out of bed by the sound of a fire alarm late at night.

All of us should appreciate the bravery and sacrifices of our firefighters. They stand ready, day and night, to save our lives. We can only hope there will be enough of them in the years to come.