BOTETOURT COUNTY, Va. – Volunteers at a local fire department are hanging up their gear, and it’s a part of a nationwide trend.
Read Mountain Volunteer Fire Department members made the decision to dissolve the agency last week.
The department has been serving the community for about 30 years, and they said during that time thousands of lives and millions of dollars of property have been saved.
“I know it was less than ten of them that were remaining in some form or fashion,” Jason Ferguson, Chief of Fire-EMS for Botetourt County said. “A lot of those folks were trying to keep a staffing level together to handle some of the EMS volume but certainly even staffing a fire engine was a bit of struggle.”
Ferguson said the change shouldn’t affect nearby residents because the station will continue to be staffed 24/7 by full-time firefighters.
“The visible day-to-day impact should be non-existent,” Ferguson said.
According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, a majority of fire departments in the country are volunteer-based departments, but those numbers are declining.
A report from the National Fire Protection Association shows in 2010, there were 768,150 volunteer firefighters. In 2020, that number dropped to 676,900. Ferguson said there are multiple factors driving people away.
“I think a lot of it these days is the busyness of life,” Ferguson said. “Volunteering for public safety is an immense commitment. It’s not like volunteering to come one Saturday a month and do a specific function. It’s around-the-clock responsibility and the emergencies don’t stop or wait.”
It’s rewarding work, which is why Ferguson encourages anyone interested in volunteering to get involved. Nearby Blue Ridge and Troutville locations are still open.
“We want folks to know that if this is a reminder that their community has volunteers, and they want to get out and get engaged, then we have applications available,” Ferguson said.