Burning Question : As County’s Use of Volunteer Firefighters Grows, Criticism Heats Up

With no crew and faced with a fire that eventually would burn 12,000 acres in 10 days, Orange County fire warden W. E. Adkinson plucked volunteers from fields, bars and poolrooms to battle the blaze.

The year was 1926.

In the 59 years since, the science of fighting fires in Orange County has advanced tremendously but, in a sense, things are still very much the same.

Although outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and the highest-paid crews in the county, the Orange County Fire Department still relies heavily on volunteers.

Every day, electronic pagers go off in households and businesses, and volunteer firefighters race to battle fires and attend to heart-attack victims. When they are not rushing to emergencies, the volunteers are students, housewives, grocery clerks and business professionals.

But critics of the volunteer force say it is a dangerous paradox that a sprawling metropolitan area such as Orange County uses non-professionals. “If it was my wife or 6-year-old son that was in need of care or was being taken from a fire . . . in all cases I would opt for the career firefighter,” said engineer-paramedic Bill Anderson. His station, No. 26 in Irvine, soon will be getting 25 volunteers who will be working with him and 14 other career firefighters.

In some county fire stations, there is open resentment of volunteers and charges that they are not sophisticated enough to handle modern-day emergencies. At the same time, the volunteers’ supporters say they are a key to economic survival in the post-Proposition 13 era, fortifying firefighting strength at reduced cost and little risk.

Unlike many fire departments, Orange County’s volunteers are not relegated to the less populated and rural areas. They are rapidly moving into the growing areas, such as Mission Viejo, where the number of emergency calls has exploded and the full-time crews often need assistance.

By contrast, Los Angeles County deploys its 98 volunteer firefighters primarily in the desert areas. And Los Angeles County fire officials like it that way, said Chief Deputy Earl Fordham.

“In a metropolitan area, it takes too much training and expertise not to have a full-time firefighter,” he said. “The volunteers work fine in the areas in the desert and the areas that do not have these high-rises, chemical leaks and refineries and tank-truck hazards . . . There is no way you train a (volunteer) firefighter in all the areas that a paid firefighter needs to know.”

The Orange County Fire Department serves an area of 524 square miles--from San Clemente to the Los Angeles County border--and 10 of the county’s 26 cities.

It covers the region with a contingent of 555 paid firefighters and 530 volunteers. Soon, the volunteers may outnumber their career counterparts, for while the number of paid firefighters remains frozen by county budget constraints, crews of 25 volunteers each are being assigned to many of the county’s 43 stations.

The financial benefit of using volunteers is substantial. Outfitting a station with three full-time, three-person shifts costs $478,000 a year in salary and benefits, said Capt. Mark Reinhold, spokesman for the county Fire Department. But the cost of staffing the same station with 25 volunteers is only $70,000 a year--for equipment, uniforms and the volunteers’ $7 hourly stipend.

“For a little over 1% of the budget, we represent nearly 50% of the firefighting force,” said Dennis Jones, president of the Paid Call Firefighters Assn., which represents the Orange County volunteers.

“It comes down to economics,” said Orange County Fire Chief Larry Holms, who is in charge of all volunteer and paid firefighters. “The way that we provide fire protection with a mixture of full-time and volunteer firefighters allows us to provide a much greater level of fire protection for the dollar than we would otherwise.

“If the volunteers weren’t there, what would you rather have? No one? Or the volunteer company arriving in a timely fashion?”

All of the county supervisors, who ultimately allocate funds for the Fire Department, praise the money-saving aspects of the program. None voiced any safety concern.

“The volunteers have performed an invaluable service to county residents over many, many years,” said Supervisor Ralph Clark. “I think we are all in their debt.”

Robert J. Brunot, coordinator and commander of the fire academy at Santa Ana College, is typical of the program’s fans. He calls it “excellent. From a fire protection standpoint it certainly augments the full-time firefighters and gives the pre-entry firefighter an opportunity to gain some valuable firefighting experience.”

Historically, Orange County has always depended on volunteer firefighters. Until a county department was formed in 1980, in fact, volunteers outnumbered career firefighters nearly 4 to 1. Today, 14 of the county’s 43 stations are still all-volunteer.

But it’s not tradition that keeps the volunteer program alive.

In the 1970s, engine companies rode with crews of five or six. Since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, though, they roll with crews of three.

The way Capt. Jeff Miklaus sees it, using even one volunteer gives him “25% more manpower” at Station 24 in Mission Viejo.

If the county paid for only full-time crews, “I might get only two men on my engine company, rather than three,” he said. “As it is, with three people, everybody is busting ass. If I only had two, we’d have major problems.”

Station 24 engineer, Blake Garlin, looks at the department’s finances another way. “Everybody would love an all-paid crew,” he said. “But it’s just not feasible. I’d still be driving a 1934 Seagraves (engine) that breaks every day. I like getting new, sophisticated equipment.”

Volunteers are the norm in most of the nation. National fire officials estimate that they outnumber full-time crews three to one. And an estimated 85% of the fire departments in the United States are all-volunteer.

The key to a successful combination is a strong fire administration, national fire officials say.

And, they say, if volunteers are to carry rank, as they do in Orange County, a clear chain of command must be established. In many instances, combination departments reported chaos when volunteer and career officers both tried to take charge of an emergency.

By all regards, fire officials around the nation say, the 5-year-old Orange County Fire Department is doing everything right in making its combination program work.

Still, not all the firefighters are happy.

Some of the most heated opposition comes from Station 26 in Irvine, which has been directed to begin training 25 volunteers in the next few months.

“I don’t want somebody behind me who doesn’t know what he’s doing,” said Station 26 Firefighter Dan Swift.

Engineer/paramedic Anderson has another complaint. “If an officer tells me to do something, I do it. My concern is: does he (volunteer captain) know what he’s doing? Is this the first time he’s ever fought a fire?” Volunteer captains--the only volunteer officers allowed--yield command to career captains, but outrank full-time engineers, firefighters and paramedics.

“If I object to an order, I have to hold that in my hat or I can get fired,” Anderson said.

Firefighter/paramedic Conrad Perez, a former volunteer at Station 30, Dana Point, also opposes volunteers.

“I wanted to get into it (volunteer program) because I wanted a career in the fire service,” he said. “But I knew it was very easy to roll over in bed and forget the pager . . . And I know there’s a big difference in the quality between the paid and the volunteer crews.”

Two years ago, the crews at Station 24 had the same concerns and more, when they were told to begin training volunteers. But they now claim to have the best volunteers in the department.

If the crews at Station 26 keep an open mind, fire officials say, they, too, will praise the volunteer program.

After considerable grumbling from his crew, said Station 24 Capt. Jeff Miklaus, “everybody rallied together and said, ‘OK, if we’re going to have it, let’s make it reflect on us.’ ”

It takes more than simple desire to be an Orange County volunteer firefighter.

Applicants must be 18 and live within two minutes of the fire station. They also must be able to don gear and be out of the station within another minute.

Their backgrounds are scrutinized, and they must pass a physical examination and review by department officials.

Once accepted, volunteers are drilled by station firefighters one night each week. They aren’t allowed to ride along with the paid crews until they have 80 hours of training and have passed dexterity tests and written exams. As a crew, the volunteers need at least 18 months of training before they can answer an alarm on their own. Even when they are allowed to operate an engine, for a while they may only assist, and cannot use lights or sirens.

Volunteers also must complete an advanced first-aid course. Ultimately, they must be trained to the Emergency Medical Technician level--the same criterion applied to full-time firefighters, Capt. Reinhold said.

Finally, a volunteer company must pass an evaluation by a battalion chief and its station captain. The process takes about two years.

“We don’t let the people loose on the public before they know what they’re doing,” Capt. Reinhold said. The volunteers then are divided into three categories--firefighter, engineer and captain. As with the full-time crews, at least one of each must be on hand to respond to a call. For the rank of volunteer captain or engineer, additional courses must be passed.

Newly approved volunteers are on the same level as rookie firefighters. The main difference is a lack of daily drilling.

Reinhold said that some veteran volunteers are better trained than full-time rookie firefighters, and some volunteer companies rival full-time companies in the basic skills.

In procedures, though, there are some obvious differences. The volunteers are required to roll out of the station within three minutes after their electronic pagers go off. If they cannot, the next available unit is dispatched. Full-time crews are required to be on the road within one minute.

It is impossible to tell decisively what effects the volunteers have on professional fire departments, county, state and national fire officials say.

In Orange County, for instance, they make no detectable difference on the county’s fire insurance ratings, which determine insurance rates in the area. They do not leave the county open to lawsuits, because they meet certain standards and are considered qualified firefighters, said Rod Umscheid, the county’s risk manager.

Still, the volunteers are not intended to replace full-time crews, said Battalion Chief Bob Miller, who administers the volunteer program. “We train the volunteers for emergencies only. If we wanted them to do all of those other things, we’d pay them.

“We don’t expect these folks . . . to be battalion chiefs or division chiefs. We expect them to intervene in an emergency as quickly as possible . . . . On medical emergencies, we may be sending a volunteer company to a heart attack, but they’re going to provide the same service as a career company. That engine company is only trying to buy some time until a medic unit can get there.”

Mary George, 58, of Anaheim, didn’t need a medic unit when she suffered breathing problems last July. She refused one, in fact, because the volunteers at Station 20 did the job quite nicely, she said.

While driving through the unincorporated Olive area, George began having severe chest pains. “I knew that I needed my oxygen and I didn’t have it in the car with me,” she said.

The situation was “life threatening,” George said. “I would have passed out right in the car and I don’t know what I would have done.”

George, who suffers from severe emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma, remembered the fire station at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Orange-Olive Road.

At the time, she didn’t know that it was staffed with an all-volunteer crew, which happened to be practicing drills that day. “I kind of fell out of the car and asked for oxygen,” George said. “They started giving me oxygen, took my blood pressure and pulse, took my vital signs. And after 15 minutes, I was feeling much better.”

The crew even escorted her home when she refused to go to a hospital.

For the volunteers, the situation was like dozens of others they handle each day. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary for them --but it was to Mary George.