Report: Lack of Trust among PA Fire Companies

Sep. 30—Better communication and coordination are top priorities needed to provide better fire service to the more than 16,000 households in Middletown, the township supervisors learned as a study of its four volunteer fire companies, the paid fire department and an area rescue squad was unveiled earlier this month.

"You have a very dedicated group of firefighters," said Mary-Ellen Harper, who with Stuart McKutcheon of the Dynamic Consulting Group, presented the analysis. The report found the firefighters are tired of the drama associated with four independent companies trying to work with each other and with the paid firefighters hired by the township.

The study also offers recommendations to improve the safety of firefighters and better their service to the community, including pointing out the pros and cons of changing how fire service is delivered in the township.

Dynamix Consulting Group notes that the fire services in Middletown must define itself and establish a baseline level of trust and communication between the township and the volunteer fire companies before any of the other recommendations in this study can be implemented successfully.

Resolving the issues are critical because the report notes that fires burn much quicker today because more building and furnishing materials are synthetic and more combustible. Therefore it's vital, even though fire companies have fewer volunteers, that they be able to arrive a a fire scene quickly and Middletown has not been meeting the goal of 15 firefighters arriving in nine minutes 90 percent of the time, as the National Fire Protection Association recommends.

"Following more than three dozen meetings, interviews, and phone calls with stakeholders throughout the community, Dynamix Consulting Group finds the fire service in Middletown as a whole is in the midst of an identity crisis while simultaneously suffering from strained relationships resulting from a lack of communication, which in turn has created a system-wide lack of trust," the 143-page report noted.

Of those interviewed, many expressed the study, and its outcomes, could be "the 'last chance' to fix the fire services in Middletown Township before more people quit and the volunteer fire companies became unsustainable.

"Relationships between the four volunteer fire companies and the Township have been strained and sometimes unproductive in recent years," the report reads.

The report pointed out that municipalities either have fire departments that are "combined" between volunteer and paid or "dual," and that Middletown's appeared more of a dual department.

"A 'dual' fire department is one in which career firefighters are segregated from volunteer firefighters and there is little cooperation and integration between the two. The defining characteristic of a dual fire department is a clear separation between the volunteer and paid members of the fire service that essentially creates two 'dual' systems," the report stated.

Middletown is served by the Langhorne-Middletown, William Penn, Parkland and Penndel fire companies, as well as the township's paid firefighters within the Department of Fire and Emergency Management. The report also looked at the service of the Penndel-Middletown Rescue Squad.

Three of the four volunteer fire companies serving the township are based in other municipalities — Hulmeville, Langhorne and Penndel — which further complicates the issues.

"The fire services in Middletown Township — comprised of four volunteer fire companies and the Township Department of Fire and Emergency Management — are historically proud and very traditional organizations that recently find themselves challenged to respond to an increasing number of emergency calls with a decreasing number of volunteer firefighters."

Among its many recommendations, Dynamix Consulting advocated for developing a "coordinated combination system for the fire service within the township.

"Trends nationally, within the Commonwealth, and within the Township indicate declining numbers of volunteer firefighters," and the likelihood of needing additional paid firefighter crews was strong.

Township Supervisor Chairman Tom Tosti said he thought the board recognized some of the issues needed addressing and was already working on them. "I think the communication and trust — we have started to build that," he said.

The board hired Dynamix in March to conduct the study which made several recommendations, including:

— representatives of the volunteer fire companies should be included in planning for the overall fire service;

— equipment should be evaluated to determine where it is best needed;

— volunteer firefighters should be given medical examinations and be allowed to spend their time on fire service, not on administration or recruitment work that the township should handle.

Middletown also should have contracts outlining "who's going to do what and how they're going to be compensated," Harper said. She noted the same applied to the township fire inspector. And she noted that record keeping needed to be coordinated.

She said Middletown was unusual in that it had a wide variety of places to cover, including a mall and amusement park.

The study also found it concerning that 25% of calls are for false alarms, which waste manpower and put unnecessary wear and tear on vehicles. Harper recommended that the township have fire alarms inspected more frequently to help reduce this number.

Tosti said Wednesday that "fire services are a vital part of our community. All over the county and Pennsylvania, volunteers are dwindling and we need to do something. The fire study helps us understand the needs of the fire departments and shows us areas where we can work better with the four departments. We gave the study to the departments and look forward to working with them to implement the findings."

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