Some Firefighters Want to Help, Others Want Career : Why Volunteers Answer the Bell

Volunteer firefighters are cut from two different molds.

On one side are those who are doing it solely because they want to serve their community. On the other side are the “Wantabees,” who are using the program for a steppingstone toward a firefighting career.

Countywide, there is nearly an even split of Wantabees and community-service-oriented volunteers, said Battalion Chief Bob Miller, who administers the program.

The pay is not that great--$7 per hour for the first 90 minutes and $6.25 for each subsequent hour. As part-time county employees, the volunteers also receive standard medical, dental and disability benefits. Fire officials also are considering a merit system for longtime volunteers.

Not in It for Money

But then few, if any, of the volunteers are in it for the money.

“It’s an avocation. It’s not a career,” said Ken Munson, a 46-year-old private investigator who has been a volunteer for seven years. “You can call it community pride, community service. It sounds kind of corny but I like what I’m doing.”

Munson, a volunteer captain at Station 2 in Los Alamitos, is like many other community service-oriented volunteers who “try to be as professional as we can be,” he said. “For what I do, I do it well. I’ve seen my guys make mistakes. I’ve seen the career guys make mistakes. . . . But I’ve never let a house burn down to the ground.”

Although there are no repercussions for not responding to an alarm, volunteers are expected to answer 25% of the station’s calls.

Not Given Enough Credit

For their efforts, said Orange County Fire Chief Larry Holms, “I really do feel that the volunteers don’t get the credit they deserve from the community. “Look at the amount of time that each of the men and women put in to help their neighbors.”

Munson’s counterpart is Devin Leonard, 21, a Wantabee if there ever was one.

Leonard, a volunteer captain at Station 24 in Mission Viejo, has been in the program nearly three years. Like many other Wantabees, he was a county fire explorer as a teen-ager, is constantly taking fire science courses and graduated from Santa Ana College’s Fire Academy. He is certified as Firefighter 1, which is required of full-time, rookie firefighters, and has his Emergency Medical Technician certificate.

He responds to about 100 calls per month at Station 24, which works out to between $500 and $600. He attends the weekly drill, for which he’s paid $7, but also comes in on his own for three more hours of drilling--unpaid.

In Reserve Program

On his days off from the county, Leonard is a part-time firefighter with Huntington Beach’s reserve program. And in between fighting fires and responding to medical aid calls, he “tries to get a job as a professional firefighter.”

In a business where there are far more applicants than jobs, Leonard has been looking for two years. “It’s a full-time job,” he said.

On March 5, the county Fire Department will be accepting applications for the first time in two years. More than 5,000 people are expected to jam themselves inside Anaheim Stadium for a chance at one of 2,500 applications. They will be vying for seven openings.

It’s not much easier to become a volunteer.

Mike Reinhold, 28, for instance, had to wait a year just for a volunteer opening at Station 24. He even had more schooling than his brother, Fire Department spokesman Capt. Mark Reinhold, when he was hired as a full-time county firefighter in 1976.

Can Pick the Best

From the county Fire Department’s point of view, the overabundance of job seekers means it can select the best and the brightest volunteers and demand a lot of them, Chief Miller said.

Many applicants are moving to Irvine just for the chance to join the new volunteer crew at Station 26, Miller said.

At one point, Miller was receiving up to 20 inquiries a day for the new crew.