Volunteer Fire Service Gets National Attention
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The Editor’s Opinion Page
The volunteer fire fighters in this country have a tradition that goes back all the way to colonial times, a tradition that involves service to one’s neighbors and one’s community—freely given and without thought to life and limb. They started with a bucket brigade, changed to the primitive, manually operated piston pumps, then to the steam fire engine and finally to the glistening pumpers and aerials that we find today.
Along the way, the volunteers acquired the skills and experience needed to combat fire—man’s deadly enemy. Early on, they realized that there were times when a small department could not cope with the occasional “big one” in town, and so they organized “mutual aid groups” with neighboring departments. In effect, mutual aid provided a small town chief with big city fire fighting resources.
But beyond organizing for mutual aid, most volunteer fire departments have kept to themselves. Of course, some have organized into regional groups and in some states there are state volunteer associations. And many volunteer chiefs have joined the International Association of Fire Chiefs. However, despite their vast number (at least a million members) the volunteer fire departments have never had any influence on the national fire scene—until recently when the National Volunteer Fire Council was organized. The aim of this council is to have a representation from every state in the country which will be capable of providing a national voice for the volunteer fire service.
This council has already attracted the attention of Gordon Vickery, new administrator of the United States Fire Administration (a former volunteer fireman) who has already proclaimed that he has established an objective of addressing the needs of the volunteer fire service. In one of his first acts, Vickery has asked the NVFC to work with his administration to conduct a volunteer workshop which is to be held in Colorado in late August. This workshop will bring together approximately 70 leaders of the volunteer fire service from all 50 states for an intensive series of work sessions—to define and document the needs and concerns of the nations’ volunteers.
This is a first and great step for the nation’s volunteer service, a sleeping giant which actually dominated the national fire scene until the 1850s. Eventually we can see groups of volunteers attending the national fire academy (at government expense) and bringing home their newly acquired knowledge to be shared by others in their departments. But to do this the volunteer service must demonstrate an interest in and an involvement with the USFA and the NVFC.
Fire Engineering will of course continue to be involved with the needs and problems of the volunteer service. After all, the first editor of Fire Engineering (1877) had been a volunteer fireman in 1865 in New York City. The following pages on volunteer fire department administration should demonstrate this interest.
