Botetourt Fire & Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is currently looking for volunteers. “Strength in numbers” is a term often used when speaking of positive productivity and effectiveness in any organization/business/team. Botetourt’s six emergency departments are a great example.
Over the last decade, the nation has faced a decline in volunteerism for fire and emergency services. Volunteers make up most of the personnel for fire services, while emergency medical services have increased the number of career personnel.
This week, the series focuses on the Blue Ridge Volunteer Fire Department (BRVFD).
Over the past couple of years, BRVFD has experienced a decline on the amount of volunteers.
“I can only speak for the Blue Ridge area but it is getting harder to get people to volunteer,” current BRVFD Chief Mike Maddox stated in a recent interview. “Some of it could be that the community is not aware that the area depends on our volunteers. Plus, where our station is located—almost at the Botetourt/Bedford county line—we are not seen by the community.”
The firehouse is located on the corner of US 460 and Blue Ridge Springs Road just past Mountain Pass Road.
Rock’s father, Richard, spent 33 years as a volunteer before moving to the Suffolk. His brother, Garry, has 45 years of experience and currently works out of the Troutville precinct. Rock’s son, Darren, has five years of experience as a volunteer and 15 years as a career Botetourt Fire & EMS employee. Since 1957, a member of the Rock family served on the volunteer or career Fire & EMS staff in Botetourt County—133 years of combined experience.
Rock witnessed the decline in Blue Ridge firsthand. The past two years presented challenges finding new volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic for not just Blue Ridge, but for volunteer emergency services across the country. Blue Ridge lost its volunteer EMT right after the pandemic began.
The squad currently has the positions to staff, but doesn’t have the people to fill those positions. At the moment, Read Mountain currently houses one career ambulance and one career fire truck. The other career ambulances are in Troutville, Buchanan, and Fincastle. Blue Ridge has an ambulance in their building, but need available staff to the fill it.
Some of BRVFD’s usual community engagement activities are non-existent due to concerns surrounding the pandemic. According to Rock, since Blue Ridge is “out on an island” it’s hard to find volunteer help. He feels as though a “sense of community” isn’t as prevalent with younger generations. He claims that there isn’t a lot of engagement within the neighborhood communities in Blue Ridge like it was years ago.
Recently, members of BRVFD received a call about a car fire in the Parkview subdivision. Six volunteer firefighters from Blue Ridge arrived on the scene and attended to the situation. Their crew managed to beat the paid crew from Read Mountain to the fire by a few minutes.
“The whole idea behind a volunteer fire department is that with 25-30 volunteers, you’re in good shape sending out 8-10 volunteers,” Rock explained. “When you only have 12-15 people, you’re lucky to get 2-3 people. We’re in a tight spot.”
Ultimately, Rock would like to see Blue Ridge pick up around 10-15 younger volunteers mainly due to Blue Ridge’s current volunteer staff isn’t getting any younger.
“It gives you a real sense of satisfaction when you help somebody,” Rock added.
One of the biggest obstacles for many volunteer fire and EMS organization is finding ways to not only bring in volunteers, but keep them on-staff.
“We have participated in multi-studies over the past two decades that look at ways to recruit and retain volunteers,” Botetourt County Fire & EMS Chief Jason Ferguson mentioned in a recent interview. “Almost every element of the findings from our assessment have been put into place, but the trends remain the same.
“This year, we have had more applicants that we’ve had in several years, but the numbers of folks trained and operationally ready continues to decline. Recruiting and retention has been a main focal point and the main reason that we now have a fulltime position of Recruitment & Retention Specialist (Taylor Lunsford) to focus on this extremely important topic.”
Volunteering isn’t just about fighting fires or riding in an ambulance attending to a citizen on the way to the hospital. There are administrative positions needed as well. In particular, help during the daylight hours.
“All of the training necessary to become an operational volunteer firefighter or providing emergency medicine makes it harder to keep folks on board,” Lunsford stated in a recent interview. “The training is a large time commitment. (Botetourt County Fire & EMS) currently has a group in a volunteer fire academy that is meeting every Tuesday, Thursday and most weekends to receive their certification. I don’t think the lack is in the desire to help, I think it is in the time people have on a daily basis to allow for it. I think we have all experienced our extra time and mental capacity outside of our jobs and family dwindle.”
For more information on volunteering with the Botetourt County Fire & EMS, visit botetourtfireems.org.
