Paid-on-call firefighters live regular lives — get up, go to work, make dinner, relax in the evening, go to bed. Eat, sleep, repeat.
But the pagers attached to their hips — even in today’s world of touch-screen cell phones and Apple watches, most paid-on-call firefighters are still issued the archaic paging devices — have the ability to interrupt that normal life at any moment. One call and they’re off, responding to a fire or medical emergency, often without even the luxury of stopping into a phone booth enjoyed by Clark Kent.
It’s a life not for everyone, and area departments that rely on volunteer or paid-on-call firefighters are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit men and women willing to make the commitment.
East Alton Fire Chief Rodney Palmer is among those who have noticed the trend. Palmer said his department currently has 10 paid-on-call firefighters; on its website, the department said it recently had 14. Palmer attributed the lower numbers to, simply, life.
“It seems to me every volunteer and combination (volunteer and paid-on-call) department is having trouble with getting that type of help because everybody is busy,” he said. “To be a volunteer or a paid-on-call (firefighter), it takes a lot of time. There’s a lot of training involved. There’s meetings. It’s mostly the training requirements that are required of the volunteers and paid-on-call personnel. It takes a lot of time.”