Dec. 12--BRANDON -- Only two fire stations in all of Hillsborough County are still using volunteer staff firefighters, and that ends at midnight on Dec. 31.
The Hillsborough County Commission has allocated $5.2 million to add 78 paid staff positions that will replace the 150 remaining volunteers working under Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.
"Prior to the end of September, we had six stations primarily staffed with volunteers," including one in Seffner, North Brandon, Dover-Turkey Creek and Bloomingdale, County Fire-Rescue Chief Ron Rogers said.
The Bloomingdale fire station and one in Lutz, which each still have volunteers manning the stations at night and on weekends, will be completely staffed by the county come Jan. 1.
An audit conducted by Hillsborough County Fire Rescue this year showed issues with the volunteer staffs in the areas of training, accountability and oversight, Rogers said. The audit discovered that stations in Dover-Turkey Creek and Cork-Knight in the Plant City area had lost their nonprofit status by failing to file the proper paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service for several years, Rogers said. That meant they could no longer legally raise funds to staff the stations.
"We want the same level of service and accountability" at all of the county's 42 stations, and eliminating volunteer staff was a way to achieve that, he said.
Rogers scheduled a series of community meetings to inform residents about the changes. The meeting in Brandon Dec. 3 drew only a couple of people.
The 78 positions will be filled by March, Rogers said. Meanwhile, the county is paying overtime to existing personnel to fill in where volunteers had staffed stations previously, he said.
"We really didn't have a choice, when they said they no longer had the money to fund the stations," Rogers said.
The Bloomingdale volunteers will continue to fund paid firefighters during the day through the end of the year.
Volunteers will still be welcome to come and assist the paid staff, Rogers said, and they can still apply for paid positions as they become available. But once 2013 rings in, volunteers will be referred to as "reserve responders."
In addition to having built-in extra hands for everyday calls or special events, the reserve responders can also be tapped as a "ready training reserve" to replace people who retire, said Sharon Subadan, deputy county administrator for public safety and community service.
Subadan said the department will also use the Reserve Responder Program as a way to recruit new firefighters and paramedics in low-income communities, where such a career is a viable option for youngsters but not one they might readily target.
"We think it will be a great recruiting tool," Rogers said.
Copyright 2012 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.
