By Jan Gottesman
Managing EditorPosted Nov 22, 2019 at 3:01 AM
Worcester Telegram
Retrieved from Fire service in ‘crisis’ in West Boylston – The Item – telegram.com – Worcester, MA
WEST BOYLSTON – When you call 911 because there is a fire or a medical emergency, you expect people to respond, and in a timely fashion.
But with fewer young people joining fire departments as volunteer or call firefighters, and older firefighters ready to retire, the shifts are getting harder to fill.
Fire Chief Tom Welsh called the situation a crisis. There are 10 active people, “and a few will join the ranks of retirement soon,” Welsh said, including Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hopewell, who will retire in January after 41 years.
“It is a young person sport,” Welsh said.
The department has tried to solicit call firefighters who live close by, with little success.
“I have a stack of people who want to be per diem,” the chief said, but they live in Rutland, Lunenburg and even Boston, outside the area of easily being able to get to town.
Now there are two people on shift and one on call, 24 hours a day. But if there is more than one call at a time, they find themselves without enough people to come in to man a second ambulance. That happened three weeks ago, when there was a head-on crash. One crew responded and took a patient to the hospital. A second crew, which the chief was on, went for chemical cleanup, but there were not enough people to man a second ambulance.
If there is no call firefighter responding, the dispatch center will call for mutual aid from another town, that that could leave the other town in the same situation.
Welsh said they are proceeding with hiring one person, and filling shifts with per diems, but will be returning in January to get selectmen’s support for a SAFER grant, which is designed to help with staffing. The grant is for three years. The first and second years, the grant would pay for 75 percent of the salary. The third year, it would pay for 35 percent. The rest is the responsibility of the town. After the three years of the grant, the town can decide whether or not to keep the firefighter.
Last year, Westboro received funding for six firefighters; Shrewsbury received eight, Welsh said.
Selectman Chris Rucho asked about speaking with Boylston again regarding establishing a regional fire department. Rucho said the issue was not about saving money, but building a strong core of firefighters for both towns.
Town Administrator Nancy Lucier will contact Boylston to start conversations.