Bucks County has formed a Fire Service Advisory Board to tackle issues facing both volunteer and career firefighters.
The board’s establishment was approved at the Bucks County Commissioners last week.
The board is made up of seven voting members and looks to address challenges such as strategic planning, training, and operational concerns.
The board includes four volunteer fire chiefs that were elected by their peers and three career fire chief officers elected by the career chiefs fire association.
George Wilson, interim director of emergency management for the county, explained that the idea for the advisory board came from key fire service leaders about a year and a half ago.
“With the changing landscape of the fire service across Bucks County, we have seen a decline in the volunteer service and an increase in some career staffing throughout the county,” Wilson said.
The board will look at strategic planning, firefighter training and improving coordination with county resources to better support fire companies.
The board’s chair, Chief Adam Selsker, of the Northampton Township Fire Department, pointed to the significance of this unified approach.
“I think this is the first time in my 44 years involved in the fire service that we actually have one single board that brings all the fire departments together to give direct feedback and engagement to the commissioners of Bucks County,” Selsker said.
The board has already been meeting and has reported successes with the communication center, incident support around the county, and the training center.
Selsker highlighted the importance of training, noting that every firefighter in Bucks County goes through a county program at some point.
“The ongoing success of that program is going to be critical to our success in the future,” he said.
The current board members are:
- Chief Adam Selsker (Northampton Fire Department), Chair
- Chief Gary Laird (Penndel Fire Company), Co-chair
- Chief Scott Fleischer (Point Pleasant Fire Company)
- Chief Glenn Forsyth (Newtown Fire Rescue)
- Battalion Chief Robert Sponheimer (Bensalem Fire Rescue)
- Chief Keith Butler (Milford Fire Company)
- Chief Tim Brewer (Upper Makefield Fire Company)
Commissioner Bob Harvie, a Democrat, thanked the board members for their additional commitment.
“For all the guys who are on this, the board members who are putting in extra time now on top of everything else that you already do, it means a lot,” Harvie said.
The formation of this board comes at a time when the fire service in Bucks County is evolving. The night before the meeting, 120 new firefighters graduated from the fire training school and represented 23 fire companies across the county.
Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, noted the importance of the fire service and shared to a friend had their life saved by firefighters during a recent house fire.
“The only reason she and her 90-year-old mother are alive is because firemen knocked on the door and they knocked hard to get her awake,” Ellis-Marseglia said.
According to a 2018 state report, there are declining numbers of volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania. The number has dropped from about 300,000 in the 1970s to 38,000 by 2018.
A 2018 state report noted that volunteers save the taxpayers enormous sums of money and should be supported by government incentives. Data from a 2018 federal report and county data found that a paid firefighter averaged a cost of $77,875 per year with benefits and not including gear.
With over 60 volunteer fire departments in Bucks County, there is an increasing shift to include paid personnel.
As of 2019, there were approximated to be just over 1,200 volunteer firefighters in the county, according to data from the Bucks County Planning Commission’s “The Future of Bucks County’s Fire Services” report.
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