Volunteer firefighters from multiple West Sonoma County agencies respond to a fire in Occidental / Image: Sashwa Burrous / 2021
When we know better we can do better for our volunteer firefighters.
Firefighter Health
Wildfires Ravage Firefighters' Long-Term Physical, Mental Health
U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 11, 2021
“‘The [U.S.] National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety did two large studies that focused on firefighter cancer,’ Ming said. ‘They concluded that firefighters face a 9% increase in cancer diagnoses and a 14% increase in cancer-related deaths, compared to the general population in the United States. Cancer and heart disease are considered presumptive [by insurers], meaning that if you are diagnosed with one it's presumed that it is work-related,’ Ming said.”
New Sonoma County initiatives seek to help first responders cope with health toll of their work
Press Democrat, Jan. 23, 2021
“‘If you figure in our career, we’re going to see anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 people having the worst day of their lives,’ said Collins, the deputy fire chief, ‘that adds up. That’s going to have a toll.’ And the siege of annual wildfires since then have accentuated the heavy burden. ‘I’ve been in the fire service for almost 40 years and I’ve never seen the level of impacts on firefighter safety that I’ve witnessed over the last four to five years,’ Sonoma County Fire District Chief Mark Heine said.
Why Firefighters Are Facing A Growing Mental Health Challenge
NPR, Feb. 16, 2021
“A recent study finds that climate change has pushed California's rainy season back by a month, extending the burning season. More generally, scientists say a warming world is causing wildfires to burn more frequently, more intensely in more places. That, coupled with our building habits, means that more and more property is at risk. Meanwhile, society's expectations of firefighters and firefighters' expectations of themselves have not changed, Eriksen says. They're still supposed to put the fires out.”
Study: Police Officers and Firefighters Are More Likely to Die by Suicide than in Line of Duty
Ruderman Foundation
“PTSD and depression rates among firefighters and police officers have been found to be as much as 5 times higher than the rates within the civilian population, which causes these first responders to commit suicide at a considerably higher rate.
The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA) estimates that approximately 40% of firefighter suicides are reported. If these estimates are accurate, the actual number of 2017 suicides would be approximately equal to 257, which is more than twice the number of firefighters who died in the line of duty.”
First Responders: Behavioral Health Concerns, Emergency Response, and Trauma
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, May 2018
“One study found that volunteer firefighters reported markedly elevated levels of depression as compared to career firefighters (with an odds ratio for volunteer firefighters of 16.85 and for career firefighters of 13.06) (Stanley et al., 2017). The researchers observed that greater structural barriers to mental health care (such as cost and availability of resources) may explain the increased levels of depression observed among volunteer firefighters. Additionally, competing demands for volunteer firefighters (having a separate job) create stress vulnerabilities that contribute to the development or exacerbation of behavioral health conditions.”
Study finds higher levels of potentially harmful chemicals in volunteer firefighters
Safety + Health, July 23, 2021
“Researchers from Rutgers University measured the levels of nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the blood of 135 volunteer firefighters. One substance, perfluorododecanoic acid, was discovered in 80% of the firefighters but scarcely seen in the members of the public. … Volunteer firefighters may accrue more on-the-job exposure to PFAS than career firefighters, as they always are on call.”
Recruitment & Retention
The shrinking pool of volunteer firefighters
SoCoNews, Oct. 2, 2019
“‘Last year we had 800 calls. That’s double what it was 20 years ago,’ [Chief Bill Bullard of the Graton Fire Department] said. ‘We are expecting a 20% increase in the number of calls next year. We have to do something. We can’t keep asking our volunteers to leave work three or four times a day to answer calls,’
Volunteer Fire Departments Are Struggling to Retain Firefighters, While 911 Calls Are Surging
Government Technology, June 29, 2017
“Nationwide, volunteer fire departments save municipalities, and taxpayers, $139.8 billion per year in firefighting costs, according to a 2014 report from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). About 70 percent of America’s firefighters are volunteers, and 85 percent of the nation’s fire departments are all or mostly volunteer, according to NFPA. The smallest communities — those with fewer than 10,000 residents — are almost always served by volunteer departments, also, according to NFPA.”
As California burns, volunteer firefighters become harder to find
San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 12, 2018
“One-third of the 28,000 firefighters in California are volunteers, most of them in rural areas. Across the country, where 70 percent of firefighters are volunteers, departments say they are struggling to recruit new people for a dangerous job. The number of volunteer firefighters in the United States fell by 10 percent over the past three decades, even as the number of emergency calls tripled, according to the National Fire Protection Association.”
Can We Do More for America’s Rural Volunteer Firefighters?
Department of Homeland Security, Sept. 20, 2016
“Of the estimated 29,980 fire departments in the U.S. in 2014, 19,915 (66.4 percent) were all-volunteer. Mostly volunteer and all-volunteer fire departments protect 35.4 percent of the U.S. population, about 115 million people.
NVFC estimates that time donated by volunteer firefighters saves localities an estimated $139.8 billion per year.”