In the state of Pennsylvania, there are more than 2,400 fire departments that protect 12 million residents living in about 2,600 municipalities. For many years, Pennsylvania has relied primarily on volunteers for the staffing of municipal fire departments and EMS agencies. It has been estimated that the state's taxpayers save about $6 billion per year by having a predominantly volunteer fire and EMS service.

During the past 20 years, however, this slowly has begun to change. A decrease in volunteerism along with an increase in call volume has caused many departments to evaluate their operations and identify supplemental service-delivery methods. In addition, the number of hours required for basic firefighter training has increased exponentially. With the number of hours and amount of training on the rise, the increase in family and career commitments, and a decrease in volunteerism, alternate methods of operation need to be identified and implemented to ensure that competent and capable fire-service organizations can provide their services in an efficient manner.

While mergers, acquisitions and consolidations have prevailed in the business world for many years, such maneuvers seldom have been used in the emergency-services discipline. This article focuses on a unique consolidation of emergency services that recently was completed by four fire departments and four municipalities in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Lost Liberty

The Liberty Fire Co. No. 1 was chartered in 1896 to provide fire-protection services to the community of Sinking Spring, Pa. Throughout the years, the department progressed from having 10 volunteers manning a single hose cart, to a cadre of more than 40 volunteer members who today staff an engine, aerial device and support vehicle. Along with this progress and growth came increased call volume, multi-disciplinary training requirements, and increased standards and regulations governing the department. Beginning in early 2000, the department witnessed a minor decrease in the number of personnel, partially due to the increased requirements, frequent fund-raising events and increased call volumes. Unfortunately, the department was not the only one to suffer these effects.

Around the same time that Liberty began to experience these effects, a neighboring fire department, the Lower Heidelberg Township Fire Department, identified some of the same deficiencies. Fortunately, the township's residents are assessed an annual fire tax that provides funding for the department; therefore, the financial issues were not as significant. However, the department still faced a decrease in volunteers and an increase in call volume.

The leadership from each department frequently met to address common operational and management issues, and both departments not only identified the necessity to address these problems, but also vowed to correct them as soon as possible. Immediately, each department refined its response plan to ensure that each would respond to the other's calls, to ensure that adequate personnel were available. In addition, the departments began to develop joint training schedules, purchase equipment together and worked to eliminate duplication of equipment, in the hopes of one day consolidating operations.

Several years later, as the two departments continued to train and respond together, a third neighboring department, the Citizen's Hose Co. of Wernersville, expressed interest in joining the informal organization, as it too began to experience the same difficulties the others were experiencing. At this point, Citizen's became part of the mutual operation of the two departments, participating in the scheduled training and responding to calls in each of the municipalities.

Throughout the years, the three departments collaborated to identify deficiencies and take corrective actions to improve the quality of the fire-protection services provided to the three municipalities. Each department also began to develop a “specialty,” e.g., one company focused on truck work, another on engine company operations and the third on rescue operations, and began working to eliminate duplicate equipment. With the three departments working together, each dispatch had the potential for bringing an aerial device, tanker, engine, brush truck, heavy rescue and several support vehicles. After numerous years of working together, it was decided by the department leadership and elected officials of each municipality to take the operation a step further by investigating the feasibility of merging the three departments into one consolidated organization.

With guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Development, a task force of fire-service leaders, elected officials, business leaders and community representatives was assembled for this task.

4 Become 1

In December 2007, the task force convened for the first time and continued to meet on a monthly basis to discuss the various areas that must be considered. As the meetings progressed, the membership in the task force grew with the addition of representatives from accounting and legal firms, insurance agencies and a retired fire commissioner. In addition to the monthly task force meetings, smaller committees were formed and also met on a monthly basis to focus on specific aspects of the consolidation, such as financial, community demographics and proposed by-laws for the new organization.

As the months and meetings progressed, several other departments closely watched our actions and progress, and consequently became interested in joining the new department. In the second quarter of 2008 a neighboring department made the leap, as the Community Fire Co. of Fritztown became an integral part of the task force, which brought the number of departments and municipalities in the consolidation process to four.

After an extensive process of public meetings, the consolidation process was finalized and approved by each of the four municipalities and the memberships of the four fire departments. On Aug 1, 2009, the Western Berks Fire Department was placed into service, starting a new chapter in the history of the volunteer fire service.

Although a comprehensive analysis of the process and the lessons that were learned is beyond the scope of this article, several key issues were identified that potentially could have made the process a bit easier.

PSAP involvement. Involving your public-safety answering point early in the process is critical to ensuring a smooth transition. Many of these agencies have individuals with experience in Geographic Information Systems who can provide the department leadership with statistical analysis of response times, demographics, critical infrastructure and geographical information. Over the years, each department witnessed changes in response procedures, mutual-aid responses and agreements with neighboring departments, all of which may be lost in the transition phase. The PSAP, with its use of computer-aided dispatching programs, easily can identify when and where particular apparatus is due, and also make changes to these procedures globally — especially if the newly consolidated department is known by a different company number.

Public involvement and rumor control. Throughout the process of studying the feasibility of the consolidation, false information came from a number of sources — including committee members. Assigning an individual from the committee to serve as a public-information officer will help to minimize the number of rumors, and also serve as a central point of contact for the media to obtain accurate information on the process. Keeping the local media informed as the process unfolds also is a critical component. The community residents will be very interested in this process, as the new department most likely will be funded by tax dollars. Consequently, they will turn to a variety of sources, including the media, for information. Also, committee meetings of the committee should be open to the public and community members should be encouraged to participate in a public-comment period. Inviting representatives from the local media to these meetings also will encourage public participation in the process.

Communications. Just as it is critical to involve the public in the consolidation process, it is equally important to ensure that the firefighters and other personnel within the departments are cognizant of what is occurring. A breakdown in communications between the task-force membership and fire-department personnel not only will stymie the process but also will degrade its credibility. In addition, effective communication between these two groups will minimize the number of rumors and flow of incorrect information, and most likely will result in a more cohesive and stable organization once the process has been completed.

The consolidation of these four departments was an extremely bumpy road. Speaking on behalf of each committee member, fire department officer and elected official involved in the process, not one of us was 100% sure that this was going to work out in the end, and each of us had unique concerns. However, each person remained committed to the process and, acting in the best interests of the departments and the communities they serve, followed through by constructing a new road for the Western Berks Fire Department to travel upon.

Jeffrey S. Weidner is a certified emergency manager and has been with the Berks County (Pa.) Department of Emergency Services for the past five years, serving in the capacity of emergency planner, deputy coordinator for planning and administration and planning manager.