COUNTYWIDE : Volunteer Firefighters Priced Right

For nearly five years now, Craig Agosta’s life has pretty much been dictated by the beeper he wears on his belt.

For some people, this might be maddening. But for Agosta, 23, and hundreds of other Orange County’s volunteer firefighters, it is the thing to do.

Agosta is among an increasing number of young men and women who find it exciting and rewarding to be putting out fires or responding to medical emergencies, even if it is just on a part-time basis.

Agosta drives a tow truck for a living but hopes to become a full-time firefighter in the next two to three years.

“I had always wanted to be a firefighter since I was 4 years old,” said Agosta. “I don’t know how I got this urge; there’s no other firefighter in my family.”

Agosta, one of 27 volunteer firefighters at Fire Station No. 2 in Los Alamitos, is a “paid-call” captain. He heads a three-man crew assigned to one of the station’s two fire trucks.

The volunteers are called paid-call firefighters because they receive $7 for each call they respond to, or $7 an hour for calls lasting longer than an hour and a half.

“It’s not much,” said Russ Robertson, 22, who has been a volunteer for a year now. “But I survived on it.”

Robertson, who is single, lives with his parents in Los Alamitos. He works in a sporting goods store.

The Orange County Fire Department, which provides fire services to 12 cities, has 682 volunteer firefighters in 57 fire stations, according to volunteer services coordinator Christie Porter.

She said it’s hard to determine how much the county is saving by using volunteer firefighters.

However, it is not the county’s intention to replace professionals with volunteers, she said.

But Capt. Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department said that volunteer firefighters provide a service at a fraction of the cost of professional firefighters.

Volunteer firefighters often staff a station when the professional firefighters are called out, he said.

Volunteer firefighters also go on calls, fight fires, respond to medical emergencies and wear the same uniforms as the professional firefighters, Young said.

“They are a valuable commodity in a world that’s getting very expensive,” he said.

To qualify as a volunteer firefighter, an applicant must be at least 18 years old, live or work within three to five minutes of a fire station and pass a physical exam and a background driving record check.

Richard Reutzel, who handles training of volunteer firefighters at Fire Station No. 2, said volunteers attend a 13-week training session, conducted on weekends at the Hunting Beach Fire Department.

Reutzel said volunteers are taught how to handle medical emergencies as well as fire-fighting techniques. Once accepted, they continue to train at least once a week, he said.

Ken Munson, who is in charge of the volunteer program at Fire Station No. 2, said about a third of the volunteers are young men who want to become professional firefighters.

The rest are folks who just want to help the community.

“This is an avocation for many of us,” said Munson, 55, who has been a volunteer for the past 15 years. “But it’s a way of giving something back to the community.”

But for Agosta, being a volunteer is a step closer to his goal of becoming a professional firefighter.

“I’m being tested now,” Agosta said. “I know I have the guts to do the job.”