BY MIKE HELENTHAL
CATLIN — Catlin Fire Chief Brian Nightlinger admits the job description for being a volunteer firefighter isn’t the most inviting.
“Heart attacks are the leading cause of death for firefighters — that goes for volunteer and full-time alike,” he said, a fact attributed mostly to the manic nature firefighters adopt when a nighttime alarm calls them to a blaze.
But the dozens who do volunteer for the 30 departments across Vermilion County aren’t thinking about themselves when they sign up.
“Who is going to come out (during a fire) if they don’t?” asked Ryan Allison, Catlin’s deputy chief.
That’s the question most volunteer departments are asking as they embark on campaigns to add new volunteers to the dwindling number of those willing to put their lives on the line for their community.
“Every year we lose experience,” he said. “The question is, ‘who’s going to carry the mantle?”
Stoking concern
Nightlinger’s department almost found that answer the hard way a few months ago when just two volunteers responded to a house fire call. That incident led to a full-out effort in Catlin to add volunteers to the roster, with firefighters going door-to-door on Saturdays trying to recruit new members.
“You just can’t grab anybody who comes in the door,” said Nightlinger, who also serves as a shift commander for the Urbana Fire Department. “We are talking to residents and telling them what the need is. We’re trying to reach young families because we know, especially having kids, they want a quality service coming to their house when they need it.
“I have to be real picky about who I send to a fire.”
Allison said the door-to-door effort to this point has gained two recruits, a number he said the department is not satisfied with.
“I think volunteering in general is so down because people want a paycheck,” he said. “We’re just looking for 1 percent (of the district’s residents) to step up and help. Right now it’s about a half-percent.”
“We need volunteers — everybody in this county needs volunteers right now,” Lynch Fire Chief Scott Weidig said.
Rossville Chief Lloyd Smith said his department, too, has undergone a campaign to keep the volunteer roster filled.
“We have a good group, but we are really trying to recruit right now,” he said, though to this point only by “word-of-mouth.”
He said finding someone interested and finding someone willing to commit the time and rigor needed are not one in the same.
“There’s an awful lot of commitment involved,” he said. “A lot of people just don’t have the time.”
Allison said being a good firefighter is also a matter of trust.
“You don’t know how many old ladies’ keys I’ve taken and locked up after a fire,” he said. “These are people we have to be able to trust with our lives. That’s why we have the screening we do.”
Daylight saving
Weidig said the worst period for volunteer departments is during daytime hours, which fortunately is a time period when there are fewer fires as well. It makes him worry about the few volunteers who are able to respond in the day, with most either working or watching their children due to a night job.
“It can be done (with a few), but these guys are putting their lives at risk real bad,” he said.
Smith agreed with that assessment.
“We always seem to have enough, but we do rely on mutual aid, especially in the daytime,” he said.
Smith, a grain elevator operator, said he joined 17 years ago upon seeing the need for agricultural rescues and support.
“Most of us have personal reasons for it,” he said. “I just saw the need in the community. It’s really just another level of public service.”
Allison was 15 when he decided he wanted to help fight fires. He’s now a full-timer with the Danville department.
“It was just the thing to do for your community back then,” he said. “I went into it not knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
Road-weary
Adding to the difficulties for the scattered volunteer fire departments of Vermilion County is the distance each must cover.
Most districts have 50 square miles or more to cover and thousands of residents to protect, and some, like the Bluegrass district, have more than 100.
Mutual-aid agreements have been made to help reduce that distance and to ensure there will be enough firefighters on the scene during a larger emergency. Some, like Catlin, Lynch and Westville, have developed automatic mutual-aid systems wherein an alarm fire calls out several departments at once. In the north end of the county, Rossville, Hoopeston and Bismarck provide a united front.
“When we get a call, everybody has to go,” Weidig said. “Mutual aid is a very big deal in this county. The daytime is still the biggest fear.”
Jamie Davis, secretary and treasurer of the Illinois and Indiana Mutual Aid Association and Red Cross disaster relief worker, said fire department coordination is key to offering a fluid service and a blanket of protection for all of the county’s residents.
Having the departments work, train and respond together means each realize they are just a small cog in a larger machine.
“Almost all of these guys are very good friends,” she said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie and we do stick together.”
The I and I association meets monthly at a different station so members of all departments can play host, and so each can see how the others operate.
She said finding qualified volunteers is a common thread of concern among all of the departments.
“It’s glamorous at the beginning, but then it falls off a little bit,” she said. “The calls come in at not the best time — on Christmas day, on a child’s birthday, at 3 a.m. It’s not just a matter of being fearless; you have to be somebody who is truly about helping people.”
Weidig said volunteering doesn’t just mean running into a fire, either.
“There’s a place for anyone who’s willing to volunteer, whether it’s working with EMS, being a truck driver or even radio dispatch. We always need someone back at the station communicating with us and telling us where to go.”
“Pretty much anybody can do it,” he said, thanks to required training and extra drilling most departments conduct outside of the state mandate of 24 hours each year.
Nightlinger said one of the benefits of a strong volunteer department is a reduction in a district’s homeowner insurance costs. Catlin has the same rating as Danville’s full-time department within city limits, a “5”, but the rural designation is a “9”, with 10 being the lowest.
He said the low rural rating is due to water-supply access, which his department is trying to alleviate with plans to build their own tanker truck to improve firefighting mobility.
Owning property inside and outside Catlin city limits, Nightlinger said he has seen firsthand the change in insurance rates.
“I know I see the difference I pay, and it’s huge,” he said. “Having a good volunteer service gives residents a monetary payback as well.”
HELP WANTED
Small outfit seeks qualified candidates to perform dangerous, unforgiving work for practically no pay or recognition. Successful applicants must sacrifice family time, train vigorously, be on call 24 hours every day and run headfirst into a raging fire.
