SHIPPENVILE, Pa. (EYT) — The Shippenville-Elk Township Volunteer Fire Department tells much of the same story that other volunteer fire departments have told in the exploreClarion.com series about challenges they are facing. Nevertheless, the volunteer department has a unique niche to help with its survival.
Despite pressing odds, all of the fire departments are still operating, and each of them finds a way to keep doing their job and protecting the public.
“We have 25 members on the active list,” said Fire Chief Jeremy Hallberg. “But, it’s like every other department. You have your active list, but with the way everyone is working, it’s hard to see him or her at one time, so you can probably rely on about half of them, and sometimes it might be a quarter of that.”
“It depends on people’s work schedule and family schedule. A lot of people have to work two jobs and have families and kids and that’s the biggest part of their lives, and they make their time when they can help out.”
Shippenville-Elk covers approximately 50 square miles, including all of Shippenville Borough, Paint Township, and Elk Township. Add in the regular mutual aid for other county departments and assisting Clarion on some of the I-80 calls and you soon have a lot of work facing 13 to 25 people.
“Most of our calls are motor vehicle accidents, and if you throw in assists for other departments, there are maybe 20 fire calls a year,” continued Hallberg. “A lot of it seems to be trees down or lines down. At times, the department seems to be an all-around ‘if 9-1-1 thinks something’s wrong, they’re going to call you’ and that’s who gets sent out.”
Like many of the other departments, Shippenville-Elk witnessed a drop in membership when large companies left the Clarion area such as Owens and Sealy. The loss also meant people moved for other jobs, and there weren’t as many members available at certain times because of a lack of shift work.
Fiberboard Plant Connection
One difference with Shippenville-Elk is Kronospan known as the fiberboard plant. It has shift work, and it also has fire department members on staff. Hallberg has worked there since 2004. Kronospan says it is the only fully-integrated laminate flooring operation in North America, manufacturing MDF and high-density fiberboard panels as well as laminate flooring at the same site.
“One of the things that benefit us (is) that we have three of our guys in the department work over in the fiberboard plant, and they’re on shift work. The fiberboard plant is very good in letting us leave if something happens, as long as we aren’t shorthanded.”
“We have a few guys that own their own contracting businesses. As long as they’re not into something really big, they’re able to break away. Some of our guys do work shift work — some at the college maintenance and boiler, and I think that’s one our saving graces during the day is we have guys hanging around or can break away.”
Kronospan also has employees from other departments, and the arrangement works both ways. Employees/firemen also provide input and help to deal with fires at the plant and can fight the fires within without calling for help via 9-1-1.
“It helps with us working there. We used to get called there a lot more than we have been recently, but I think that is because everybody has a little better understanding of it and what is needed. The last few fires have been only our department and a lot of that is because we have a team there.”
“When the fire is in the duct work, they can usually stop it before it gets any further than one space. It just needs a little bit of extra help. Making sure somebody there is important. Having a crew of our guys there if my first assistant is working, and I’m off at that time — usually I’ll get on the radio, and he’ll let me know what’s going on and where it’s at, and we can make our determination if the guys in the plant are going to be able to handle it. It just helps to have that knowledge with a brigade.”
“The company has always had safety precautions in there since I’ve been there, especially on the press and fire tubes, and as things happen, you learn of certain areas that need more fire protection. As we learn that, they have definitely put more in to take care of it. For example, after one fire they put in a whole new system in our dry fiber bins so that would not happen again. They are always good when something bad happens or something small that could lead to problems, they put in place a system that should stop the problem.”
Recruiting new members and training
“We do have trouble getting younger members,” said Hallberg. “I don’t want to blame it on any one thing, but around here you don’t see that many family-sustaining jobs anymore. Kids get out of college and have better opportunities, and that’s part of the challenge — they find a better job somewhere else, and you can’t blame them for taking the opportunity to better their lives. One of the big things we have noted is we get kids in high school that will join as junior members, and they will move on to better opportunities.”
“Required training, especially for someone new coming in, can be overwhelming. We want them to join and then they start asking about the amount of training and also fundraising that you have to do on top of that to keep the department running. Some people get overwhelmed by that and don’t want to do it. When I took my first essentials class it was 88 hours long compared at almost 200 hours long now. It’s a struggle for everybody right now to find people that can get in and help with it.”
“The majority of our guys have been there for a while, and we have a few new members, but I think the last big blast of members was right around the time I joined. There were seven or eight us that joined at about the same time.”
Fundraising is also necessary for a volunteer fire department, and the extra work can also cause people not to join the fire department. Municipalities covered by Shippenville-Elk do make a contribution every year, and the amount of that contribution usually varies with the size of the municipality.
“It’s the same everywhere; they don’t have a lot of money. Municipalities also pay for worker’s comp. They have to provide fire protection, so that’s the way they do it by paying the worker’s comp.”
Most volunteer departments need fundraisers to survive and Shippenville’s major ones are a chicken barbeque, gun raffle, and the annual Ladies Night.
“Those are our big ones. Sometimes we’ll have smaller things thrown in if we see a good idea for a small raffle, we’ll do that.”
The fire department has been doing its own insurance building for close to ten years.
“The one thing we decided when we did do the billing, we would only bill insurance companies and not individuals. If someone from our area loses a house to a fire, the last thing you need is someone sending you a bill. You’ve paid for insurance, and now is the time to let them pay.”
Organization
Running any fire department requires good organization — and that includes the fire side of things and the executive side.
“The new guys don’t see it, but some of the guys are pulling double and triple duties on some of that. Our President is Dan Hartle, and he’s also the head of the fundraising committee, and he’s third assistant chief, so he’s got a full plate right there. My first assistant chief is also the secretary and on the fundraising committee and multiple other committees. It’s almost another full-time job doing those three things.”
Shippenville-Elk is also unique because it also owns the ambulance company.
“However, they are two separate entities, and their money stays with them. They have a separate ambulance board, and some of our firemen also sit on the board. It is more or less an oversight board, and if they get a report from the ambulance, any major decisions come back to the fire department. They watch over themselves, and we watch over ourselves.”
The ambulance also has its own building near the fire department. The ambulance company did absorb the old Farmington Ambulance Company but later split the coverage with Clarion Hospital.
The future?
Hallberg is not sure about the future of the Shippenville-Elk Volunteer Fire Department.
“With what I’ve been seeing over the years since I started and the way it is right now, it seems to be headed downward rather than getting better. When I joined, there were enough people in it, and it was hard to get on a truck — you’d go for a car wreck, and there would be guys back at the station because every truck was full and no room to carry anymore.”
Despite the many challenges, as long as there are dedicated community members, they can respond with ways to meet those challenges.
