Some tap own pockets to fight fires

BASTROP, Texas (KXAN) - Walking against the wall inside one of the bays at the Bastrop Fire Station, Devan Laird pointed out the decades of dedication starting at her feet and scribbled ten feet above her head.

As different departments pitched in during past fires, they left their mark and a reminder of the importance of volunteering.

"They came to help,” Laird said, as she stared at one department’s emblem. "People willing to leave their jobs, their families to come out to save their community - it's an amazing thing."

 

---

Related:

 

• The high price of volunteering

  ---

Laird – like all 55 firefighters in Bastrop – is also a volunteer. This 21-year-old helped battle the worst fire the area had ever seen one year ago.

"We probably would've lost more of our town, if (the volunteers from across the state) hadn't come to help,” she said.

"They saved 5,000 people, plain and simple,” said her chief, Henry Perry. “(The emergency workers) are heroes."

Nearly 80 percent of all firefighters in Texas are volunteers, according to the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshal’s Association. In tough economic times - and tremendous wildfire seasons - their service comes at steep financial cost.

the association said 86 percent of volunteer firefighters nationwide spend their own money on resources. Most rely heavily on donations. Luckily, Bastrop also receives funding from the city and the emergency services district.

"A couple of my neighboring departments by the time the big fire got here, they were already digging in their pockets to put fuel in their trucks, digging in their own pockets, shelling out their own money to buy hose,” Perry said.

To make matters worse, this Texas legislative session, state lawmakers cut funding for volunteers from around $48 million to $16 million for the biennium. This funding is distributed to volunteer fire departments through the Rural Volunteer Department Assistance and Insurance Program, administered by the Texas A&M Forest Service.

This program provides pass-through grants to assist volunteer fire departments in acquiring training and equipment. SFFMA said departments typically use the money for items like hoses, tools, brush trucks, tankers, protective clothing, and tuition for fire schools.

"$7 million sounds like a lot of money,” said Chris Barron, executive director of the fire marshals association. “But that money stretches real thin."

Barron said there was about $135 million in outstanding requests for assistance when the state cuts went into effect. Since that time, the money has been directed to mostly protective clothing and training.

There are currently 1,928 fire departments in Texas, according to the fire service. Just under 1,500 of those are fully volunteer departments. Of the 60,000 local firefighters in the state, nearly 40,000 are volunteers.

"When you look at a fire truck that goes down the road, you're looking at about a half-million dollars that goes down the road,” Barron said. “A brush truck can cost well up to $100,000. The gear we wear is anywhere from $300 for a set of wildland gear to $2,000 for structural gear that we wear inside burning buildings."

The forest service also received $121 million in one-time, emergency appropriations to cover additional fire response in the past two years. Last September, state leaders also authorized $5 million in State Emergency Grant Funding, which was distributed by the fire service to volunteer fire departments.

However, due to the extreme wildfire fight last year, the $121 million in emergency funding appropriated to TFS for this biennium has been fully committed, and the agency will likely have to seek additional emergency funding in the next session.

Both the fire service and the fire marshals association said they hope the Legislature will at least reinstate the original funding amount for volunteer fire departments.