Well-stocked fire trucks and ambulances, small ranks of volunteers

Amid a park-wide shortage of volunteer EMTs and firefighters, rural first response teams share resources and seek solutions

By Arietta Hallock

Summer is a busy time for the Adirondacks, with an influx of seasonal residents outnumbering the park’s full-time population. This shift breathes life into local commerce and tourism but inevitably brings an uptick in emergency incidents. Maintaining enough volunteer first responders is challenging for small towns with even smaller ranks.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening in the Adirondack Park’s least populated yet geographically large county.

Robert Wilson is currently the only active emergency medical technician serving Piseco and neighboring Morehouse. Like many smaller Adirondack towns, both rely on volunteers to fight fires and respond to medical emergencies.

“It’s really hard for the residents of Piseco. And it makes it harder for Speculator because they have to end up doing almost half our calls now,” Wilson said.

Speculator neighbors Piseco to the east and has around 1,300 full-time residents compared to roughly 300 in Piseco and 90 in Morehouse. They are all part of Hamilton County, home to the largest percentage of 2nd homeowners in the nation, according to the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism. During summer, Speculator’s population alone soars to an estimated 11,000. Yet first-response teams remain desperate for volunteers.

“We’re really hurting for EMTs,” said Wilson. “I’ve had calls where I don’t have a driver.”

Recruitment roadblocks

Jonathan Lane is the President of Piseco’s Volunteer Fire Department. The department’s membership rests between 20 and 30 members depending on the season, and some firefighters have begun driving for the ambulance.

“It’s a small number of members. Not by design, but because there’s just not a lot of people that want to volunteer,” Lane said.

EMT certification requirements have always been rigid, making that branch especially difficult to recruit for. Yet an overhaul of federal safety regulations, proposed by OSHA late last year, will increase training requirements and time commitments for volunteer firefighters, too. Small departments worry these changes may deter recruits.

Incentives

The Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) is a benefit offered to New York State Volunteer firefighters. Once members reach retirement age, they can receive monthly payments based on how many years they have volunteered. The program intends to reward volunteering, though Lane says small-town camaraderie draws more members than money does.

As towns shrink and existing members age, volunteer fire departments are focusing on incentives to draw a new wave of volunteers.

“We go through spells where people don’t join, and then you’ll get somebody and then his friend, father or son will join. That kind of steamrolls for a while and we’ll gain quite a few members,” Lane said.

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The Piseco Ambulance also offers recruitment incentives, including reimbursement payments for EMT trainees. Wilson says all volunteers are welcome to join, no matter their current certification.

A Morehouse resident, Wilson also works as a paid EMT in nearby Poland. Some Adirondack departments, including Long Lake and Kuyahoora Valley Ambulance Corps, have begun offering paid positions alongside volunteer opportunities. Smaller volunteer departments sometimes outsource their calls to these larger paid ones, though this leads to longer response times during an emergency. The nearest hospitals with trauma centers are both nearly two hours away.

While Wilson can’t envision a town like Piseco having a paid ambulance or fire department, he hopes to see more paid first response services shared between towns in Hamilton County. Star Ambulance serves the towns of Trenton, Remsen, Steuben, Forestport, Ohio, and Russia, rural regions where finding volunteers as individual departments took a lot of work. By consolidating resources, Star Ambulance hired career employees and fortified its emergency services.

Seasonal solutions

Volunteer fire departments across the Adirondacks are hosting their annual fundraisers and community celebrations in the coming months, when towns are most populated. 

With an influx of seasonal residents, departments like Piseco have shifted their requirements to allow seasonal help, including taking summer ambulance drivers. They will welcome any help they can get, according to Lane and Wilson.

“It’s hard to be a full blown, active fireman or EMT if you’re not here all the time, because of the process to do so,” Lane said.

“But there’s other things that you can do to help.”

Piseco Ambulance is hosting an open house on July 28, and the Piseco Volunteer Fire Department is hosting its annual chicken barbecue and Harley raffle fundraiser on Aug. 10. For more information on volunteering, visit https://www.facebook.com/PVFDA/.

Pictured at top: The Piseco Volunteer Fire Department at a recent Tuesday night meeting. Photo by Arietta Hallock