CLAY COUNTY, Ind. – (WTHI) – This week volunteer firefighters and Indiana lawmakers met to discuss new benefits and better funding for the ones willing to put their lives on the line, each and every night, to make sure your lives at home are safe.
Many topics were discussed including benefits and the shortage of volunteers.
The biggest issue brought up was the lack of funding throughout the state. Indiana volunteer firefighters association lobbyist Larry Carl wants everyone to understand that volunteering does not mean it’s free.
“You know I think the big misconception is that people look at out title, volunteer, and they take that to be it’s a free service,” he said. “It costs us to operate the department.”
The Van Buren Fire Department alone needs 36 career firefighters to operate efficiently but it costs the station $4,731,861 to do just that over the course of their entire careers.
That total includes training, vehicles, and gear among many other things.
Susan Freed, a Parke County resident and trustee, expressed her feelings after finding out a local library was receiving more than five times the amount of funding as the volunteer fire department.
“It made me very angry,” she said. “I can live without a library. It does not save my house if it’s on fire.”
Freed has three generation of men in her family that volunteered as firemen and further expressed her frustration.
“To me, saving someone’s life, or if there is a bad wreck, or a fire, that is more important to me than being able to go into he library and read a book,” she said.
Larry Carl challenges all current and future volunteer firemen and women to et the elected officials involved.
“That is one of my challenges as their lobbyist is to encourage them to get involved in politics,” he said. “Not partisan, not being an active elected official, I want them to be involved in politics to share our message with the elected officials.”
If you or someone you know are looking to become a volunteer firefighter head to the Indiana Volunteer Firefighter Association’s website: https://ivfa.org/