Consolidation

Consolidation. It is considered one of the most dreaded words in the fire service. It takes two or more departments and merges them into one, under a new name, new identity, and creates a new culture. There are a variety of reasons why consolidations occur, such as manpower or financial issues. It can be determined that ultimately, it is best to pool the resources. However, one reason is known to continually cause consolidations to fail: Culture. And when I mean culture, I mean pride and egos.

For a job so loved, it is not surprising how much pride goes into. We are proud of our departments and what we do. However, sometimes we let this overshadow what we are meant to do. Why are you a firefighter? This is the firefighter's purpose: To protect life and sustain property. Make a hazardous situation safe. The job of a firefighter is not about the individual firefighter. It is about everyone else, the people that you protect.

For volunteer firefighters, it can be a struggle. Not only are you balancing an outside job and family while responding to calls, you also have to put in time for training, meetings, and fundraisers. For some departments, fundraisers can be what keeps the department going. It is also common for there to be more than one department per municipality, often for reasons stuck in the past as in white collar versus blue collar or terrain issues that past fire apparatus (or horses) could not get through.

We are content in our history. We see each other struggling, with money, worrying about paying department bills, or with manpower, worrying about crewing the truck the next time the pager goes off, and it is still hard for us to admit that it is time to change history. Consolidations pool resources together. Sometimes you can get rid of a station or apparatus piece in consolidation. There could be less fundraisers or less donation letters being sent out, possibly enticing more residents to attend or donate more, since they do not have to choose. It is not easy at all starting from the beginning. You have to create new by-laws, new standard operation procedures, guidelines, and more.

You also have to deal with people. You are changing the way things have been done. People do not always respond well to change.

Without a doubt, there is an overabundance of fire departments and a continual decrease in manpower. There are times that departments cannot answer calls. A variety of recruitment methods have been and will continue to be tried. But right now, we have to use the resources that we have in the most efficient manner that we can. And that very well may be pooling our resources together.

But then you have to worry about this guy not liking that guy and wondering who's going to be Chief, what's the name of the company, what color of the fire trucks and not necessarily the things that matter. The question should be will this improve our services to our community? How can we best prepare to fulfill our mission?

Instead of thinking about themselves, people need to look at the situation and think about others. Think about the community. How prepared are you for your community? To hell with the pride. It's not about trying to dominate. It amazes me how quickly multimillion (or billion) corporations can consolidate with each other and there are still fire departments bickering over who is responding to what.

A lot of municipalities cannot afford paid departments. We are what they got. We have to do what's right. It is not going to be easy. But would you rather work through the problems or watch them get worse? And know that it was a fear of change that kept those problems from working out? You have to try. Not a half assed effort either. It is not easy. It never will be. You are making two into one. There will be arguments. You won't win every disagreement either. But who is it for-your pride and potential of a position or the people you protect?

It is a very touchy subject. But someone needs to be willing to state their stance and go with it.

Stay safe.