BEACON – Volunteer fire and ambulance corps around the country are finding it more difficult to recruit volunteers into their ranks. People’s busy schedules, families, work schedules and other factors have resulted in the numbers dwindling.
The Beacon City Fire Department is a combination of career firefighters and volunteers. That has resulted in neighboring departments being called in under mutual aid when there are insufficient city volunteers to cover fires.
All-volunteer departments face similar problems, but don’t have the luxury of being backed up by paid firefighters.
Beacon Mayor Randy Casale is proposing discussion about forming a regional fire district, perhaps involving Beacon, Chelsea, Glenham, and Fishkill departments.
“Strategically put paid people in certain firehouses and still have the volunteers work with us; we could attack it better and the tax base would be paid over a broader tax base,” the Beacon mayor said. “I don’t have the answers but I think people need to sit on at the table, be open-minded, have the discussion and realize that eventually it will happen because of the lack of volunteerism.”
Casale said the municipalities should be pioneers and “not act out of desperation.”
Without a regional fire district, municipalities could face bankruptcy if each had to hire full compliments of paid firefighters.
