When Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz urged the area&#8217s multitude of volunteer

fire companies to consider mergers, his political brethren mostly kept their distance.

Turns out, Poloncarz wasn&#8217t as alone as it first seemed. A lot of volunteer

firefighters are thinking the same thing.

Stressed by their relentlessly thinning ranks, the increasing demands of an already

exacting job and a sour economy that is prompting a hard look at every cent they spend, some

volunteers, for the first time, openly agree.

&#8220What&#8217s changing are the times, and we can&#8217t control that,&#8221 said Steve

Fialkowski, who said he has responded to 5,700 calls during his time as a volunteer

firefighter in one of Cheektowaga&#8217s 10 fire districts.

Make no mistake: Long accustomed to independence, volunteers resent outsiders &#8212

particularly politicians &#8212 telling them their business. And plenty are still happy with

things as they are.

But a weary resignation seems to have crept in as well, an acceptance that the status quo

is now just too strained to survive.

Should some fire companies be townwide? Should mergers occur? Is it time to use a handful

of paid firefighters in companies where volunteers are hard to come by?

Could be, Fialkowski said.

&#8220We have to keep an open mind. We need to do what&#8217s best for the community,&#8221

he said.

Fire companies do a good job of policing themselves when it comes to spending and saving

lives, said Edward Kulpa, president of Bowmansville Fire District. But he, too, sees areas of

the county where the ranks of volunteers are dwindling, and said something must be done to

keep the system operating.

&#8220It&#8217s worth looking at,&#8221 he said. &#8220You have to be cooperative.

There&#8217s always two sides to any story. Hopefully, you find a middle.&#8221

At Erie County Fire Wire, a Web site for firefighters, downsizing is the hottest topic.

&#8220A lot of them [posters] are for it,&#8221 said Mike Vanderlaan, the former North

Carolina firefighter who runs the site.

Even the head of the Erie County Fire District Officers Association thinks consolidations

are probably inevitable.

&#8220What I see happening is in 10, 15 years [they will consolidate],&#8221 said John R.

Wicka, the association&#8217s president and a commissioner with Lake View Fire Department.

&#8220But it&#8217s going to happen within. If it comes from outside, it will be a

disaster.&#8221

Financial problems

Not long ago, the suggestion that volunteer fire departments consider consolidations, or

any change at all, would have created an unbreachable wall of fiery criticism from the

&#8220vollies,&#8221 as they are sometimes called.

But despite their tradition of political clout, volunteer firefighters have been under

increased scrutiny lately from outsiders.

Much of it is financial, and it&#8217s not hard to understand why.

The Poloncarz report released Wednesday found total costs for the county&#8217s 93

volunteer fire companies rising fast &#8212 up 36 percent from 2000 alone.

Yet, the number of fires continues to decline nationally, statewide and locally.

In New York, the number of fires dropped by nearly half between 1988 and 2007, to 124,829.

Emergency medical service calls, meanwhile, reached 2.5 million (including New York City) the

same year.

Locally, the trend is similar.

Consider Clarence. The price the town pays for firefighting services has increased by

almost 130 percent in the last seven or so years, from $1.37 million in 2002 to $3.13 million

in 2009.

Yet fire calls are relatively few. For instance, the Harris Hill Fire Department answered

624 calls in 2008, but only 32 were for fires. Of those, six involved structures, four

involved vehicles, and 22 were &#8220miscellaneous,&#8221 according to the Amherst Central

Fire Alarm Office.

There were 354 EMS-related, 54 for vehicle accidents and 183 listed as miscellaneous.

Former Amherst Supervisor Satish Mohan also forced a re-examination of budgets for the

town&#8217s nine fire departments, concerned by ever-rising costs even as fire calls dropped.

According to Amherst Central Alarm statistics, total calls for service dropped nearly 10

percent between 2006 and last year, to 1,161. The office primarily handles calls in Amherst,

Clarence, Akron and Newstead.

During that period, fire calls dropped nearly 23 percent, while EMS calls jumped 84

percent, the statistics show.

Yet big-ticket items like new fire trucks and sometimes sumptuous new fire halls drive up

costs, critics and even firefighters themselves say.

Difficulty recruiting

Still, it&#8217s cheaper than switching to all-paid departments, volunteer firefighters

note.

And firefighters find the criticism from outsiders both upsetting and yet another hurdle to

recruiting new members.

Who needs that kind of grief for a job that is both unpaid and potentially dangerous, they

say.

Cheektowaga&#8217s Fialkowski recalls all that he missed &#8212 dinners and other family

time over the years &#8212 to answer calls. On top of that, it takes hundreds of hours in

required training &#8212 26 weeks several hours a week just for the basics &#8212 plus

constant training year-round.

That partially explains why the number of volunteers continues to fall. State officials

last week said comparative numbers were not readily available, but a 2005 USA Today article

pegged the drop-off in New York State at roughly one-third over the previous 15 years.

The exodus over the years of young adults from Western New York is one problem, Fialkowski

said. So is the nature of the life of those who are still here.

&#8220These days, [young] people go to college, or they&#8217re working two jobs,&#8221 he

said. &#8220They don&#8217t have the time.&#8221

In fact, about 30 percent of the volunteer firefighters in Erie County are over 50 years of

age, a 1998 state report on recruitment found.

&#8220It&#8217s so hard to recruit,&#8221 he said.

But concern about the bottom line remains.

Clarence Councilman Joe Weiss has been waging a steep unhill battle to tamp down the cost

of fire services and to get fire companies to focus more heavily on emergency medical

services.

&#8220What do they need with all these [fire trucks]? Their calls are mostly EMS,&#8221

said Weiss, who said one firefighter suggested he&#8217d be a great fundraiser for the

town&#8217s fire service &#8212 as the target in a demolition derby with vollies as the

drivers.

Outsiders could end up doing the job for them. The New York State Reorganization and

Citizens Empowerment Act, which so far has been aimed at dissolving village governments, also

applies to fire departments, which could be abolished or consolidated. Firefighters fear it

would empower town officials to take the reins although there is some confusion about whether

that would be the case.

Consolidation in future?

The act, which took effect in March, is aimed at saving costs by eliminating duplication of

services. It also amends the Municipal Home Rule law to allow a county Legislature to initiate

takeover of fire services, although that would require a referendum.

A bill exempting fire services from the act has been introduced by Assemblyman Phil Boyle,

a Bay Shore Republican.

&#8220I did it to allay the fears of firefighters,&#8221 he said.

The Poloncarz report supports the new law as is. Among its recommendations is getting grant

money for an outside study that would focus on consolidation, and giving towns authority over

all fire spending and how best to deploy volunteers.

Lake View&#8217s Wicka said his department already is making changes to be more cost

efficient. He said his company went from four pumper trucks to two pumper trucks and a

pumper/rescue truck. All nine Hamburg fire departments and some others nearby train together

and jointly purchased training equipment.

Still, Weiss and other critics doubt significant change will come from within.

&#8220Are you kidding me? There&#8217s no way they can police themselves,&#8221 he said.

And the new law may give town officials power to take over fire service, but he doubts

there is any political will.

&#8220There&#8217s nobody with any guts on this,&#8221 Weiss said. &#8220No one wants to be

the skunk at the garden party.&#8221