Help Wanted Valley Fire Stations Could Use A Few Good Volunteers

John Westerman decided to become a volunteer firefighter after a wildfire swept within 150 feet of his family’s property near Valleyford.

Then just 17 years old, Westerman knew many of his fellow volunteer firefighters from District 8. They were his neighbors, his minister and the guy from the linen service in town.

That was in 1973.

Now, not many of his neighbors have time to become volunteer firefighters.

“People’s lifestyle is not as community-oriented as it was 26 years ago when I started,” Westerman said.

As the Spokane Valley grows, once-rural fire districts like District 8 are finding it increasingly difficult to find enough volunteer firefighters.

Busy lifestyles and increased training requirements are blamed for the lack of volunteers, not only in suburban neighborhoods but in rural areas as well.

“People have less time and we’re making greater demands on them. It isn’t money that’s hard to get, it’s time,” said Fire District 9 assistant chief Jim Graue.

District 9 covers many of the hillside neighborhoods north of the urban Spokane Valley.

Firefighters need more than 100 hours of training just to “get out of the starting blocks,” Graue said.

It used to be that volunteers learned as they went along.

When Westerman first joined District 8, there were 10 to 15 volunteers who lived near Valleyford. Now, three volunteer firefighters respond from the Valleyford station. Several more volunteers respond to medical emergencies.

People living in suburban neighborhoods typically don’t work near where they live. They can’t drop whatever they’re doing and get to the scene of a medical emergency, said Graue.

“In the past, rural people realized that if they wanted fire services, they’d have to provide them. That’s changing,” said Graue.

The solution for fire districts 8 and 9 has been to hire full-time firefighters to supplement volunteers.

The districts also have resident firefighters who live at the stations and respond to calls. Most are taking classes to become full-time firefighters.

Fire District 8 has 11 career firefighters, 11 resident firefighters and 40 volunteers.

That sometimes creates friction between volunteers and paid staff.

“One of the challenges is maintaining a team environment. I think we’re fairly successful at that,” said District 8 Chief Dan Stout.

The challenge is making volunteers not feel as if they’re second-string players.

“When they have paid guys, we’re not as needed anymore, so we feel left out a little bit,” Westerman said.

It’s an issue that districts around the country are struggling to address, said Ed Lewis, the fire chief for Deer Park Fire District 4.

He challenged new volunteers not to degrade the service they provide.

Lewis recently addressed the graduation ceremony at Spokane Community College for new volunteers from around the area.

“The phrase that drives me crazy is, `Well, I’m just a volunteer,”’ Lewis told them. “If it doesn’t ring a bell today, it will tomorrow. This mind set totally undermines the organizations you’re about to join. … Professionalism is an attitude, not a paycheck.”

Far from becoming irrelevant, volunteers are the lifeblood of District 8, said Stout.

The district would never have the revenue to become completely professional like the Spokane Valley Fire District, he said.

“Our volunteers are vital for what it takes to do the job,” said Stout.

District 8 covers Chester, the Saltese Flats area, Valleyford, part of Painted Hills and the southeastern corner of the South Hill, and most of everything in-between.

The district had 840 calls in 1999, most of them medical emergencies. The number of calls increases 3 to 5 percent each year, said Stout.

For Roger Harris, being a volunteer firefighter is the way he gives back to his community.

Harris sat in the weight room of Chester station last week with his son Russell. Russell Harris recently became a resident firefighter and hopes to eventually sign on to a fire department full-time.

Both father and son feel the district needs everybody to get the job done.

“I think with more people here living in the country, it’s going to become more professional all the time,” said Roger Harris.

Still, at a house fire, the elder Harris never has any doubts about his importance as a volunteer.

He knows how to put out fires and when flames are quickly destroying a house, nothing else matters.