Marissa needed at least 12 firefighters to respond to a recent house fire. They had 3
Chief Jim Perrine thought about the memories that were lost in a blaze at a mobile home earlier this month after only three firefighters were available to respond.
If the entirely volunteer Marissa Fire Protection District had more firefighters there shortly after 6 a.m. on March 1, Perrine wonders what family treasures and belongings might have been saved.
Though the homeowners escaped, their home on South Park Street was destroyed by the fire a space heater likely started. Perrine needed a minimum of 12 volunteers to respond properly. Besides himself and the assistant fire chief, only one captain, one engineer and one firefighter came.
Police and other fire departments responded to assist Marissa, but it required travel time through the district, which spans roughly 55 square miles.
“It’s disappointing,” said Perrine, whose position is also volunteer. “Fire is very destructive and trying to have an aggressive approach to putting it out when you don’t have the manpower, that costs memories.”
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, people began leaving Marissa as area coal mines closed. A large pool of coal miners, who shared skills with firefighters, were no longer there to volunteer. In the years following, volunteers aged into retirement, and they weren’t replaced.
“Guys moved on,” Perrine said.
Perrine’s district is just one that faces a shortage of volunteer firefighters. When the chief joined the district 28 years ago, they didn’t have any trouble keeping a full roster of 36 volunteers.
As of late March, the district has only 21.
A bill under consideration in the state legislature could help attract volunteer firefighters by giving them a $500 tax credit on their Illinois income tax return. State Sen. Chris Belt, D-Swansea, said the measure could cost the state up to $22 million.
It’s a small price compared to what homeowners in volunteer districts would pay if they were to fund a full-time, paid fire department through property taxes, said Margaret Vaughn, government affairs director for the Illinois Firefighters Association.
New York, Louisiana, Iowa and Delaware have similar laws.
“They didn’t make it overly complicated,” Vaughn said at a legislative committee hearing last week. “Let me tell you it’s a lot more complicated for those firefighters to determine how they’re going to put out a fire.”
State Rep. Curtis J. Tarver, II, D-Chicago, asked at the hearing about whether the $500 tax credit in Senate Bill 3027 would be enough to alleviate the shortage. Perrine said anything would help.
Volunteer firefighters do everything paid firefighters do, except collect a paycheck, Perrine said. That doesn’t just include fires. They respond to any emergency where they’re needed.
The volunteers in Marissa’s district earn just $5 per call, and they’re expected to complete a year’s worth of training before they qualify. Continuing training is also expected. The firefighters don’t pay for the training but, except for some reimbursements, they aren’t paid for it either.
“I think anything that is an incentive for the volunteers, that yes, it will in some way help,” Perrine said.
While demands of the job might contribute, the chief isn’t sure why the younger generation isn’t volunteering. He hasn’t met enough potential recruits to ask about it, but he acknowledges the time and dedication it takes to be a volunteer firefighter.
It worries Perrine, whose firefighters respond to roughly 90 to 100 calls per year. He knows the loss at the mobile home fire could have been much greater and hopes potential firefighters think about how they could help their community by volunteering.
“To help the community, to give back to it,” Perrine said, “I think it’s a very rewarding field.”
The bill passed the state Senate in late February and was still under consideration in the House as of late March, with session scheduled to end on April 8.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
