Luca Powell
纪录鹰，遍历城市，MICH。
(MCT)
2月20日 - 遍历城市 - 这只是在下午11点。当Jake Steichen的船员接到了电话时。
An attached, two-car garage was on fire near Eighth and Cochlin streets. The fire was called in by a neighbor and the home’s residents — a family of five with three children — were asleep inside.
Steichen说，Steichen及其中尉抵达一分钟内。国家指南推荐四名消防员响应全面的结构火灾，最少三个。
Steichen和他的中尉有两个。在斯廷文外开始抑制火灾。他的中尉Eric Jackson进入了搜救救援。
Jackson’s mission wound up being a brush with catastrophe. Steichen remembers seeing the front door of the house combust and explode in response to a gush of water from the engine, just moments after Jackson made it through with the last family member.
“Pretty darn close.” That’s how Steichen described it.
The house survived and later, Steichen and five other members of the department were awarded for their response to the blaze. Still, there should have been four firefighters in the truck that night. Steichen admits there’s an irony there.
“告诉大家人真的有责任，你总是有多危险？”Steichen说。“很难说明你的失败，或者可能是失败的事情。
And yet for many local fire departments, safety guidelines can be overridden by short-staffing. But welcome to firefighting in 2022, where the allure of the profession has faded, but the fires, crises, and EMS calls haven’t. From Bellaire to Blaire, department chiefs everywhere say they face the same problem: a shortage of firefighters that has made the job riskier for those who ride the engines.
Firefighters say this is one staffing shortage that wasn’t a byproduct of the pandemic. It has been years in the making, brought on by benefit cuts enacted in response to the 2007/2008 recession. At the Traverse City Fire Department, where Steichen works, the job doesn’t provide medical insurance in retirement anymore — a perk that brought in many young applicants who knew that 25 years of service to the department would yield a lifetime of security.
Ten years ago, firefighter jobs were competitive. Steichen competed against 40 other candidates when he tested for the job. And that was only after months of preparation.
“现在我们正在努力获得少数人，”Steichen说。“所有国家都在整个州，他们雇用了甚至有资格的人......他们只是在别人可以接他们之前让他们成为因为有这样的绝望。”
当退休人员在该部门停止时，Steichen说他们是“惊人的恐惧”。当部门每年跑400次跑车时，人员配置水平与梯者跑到梯子时一样。
遍历城市消防部门在2021年制作了超过3,300次运行。
目前，部门的工作人员中的一项消防检查员职位。当他们展现出来时，他们经常缺乏安全的官员，梯子，司机和船员，可以在一瞬间出发的发动机。
Steichen表示差异很重要。四年后，该部门回应了2周的呼吁，警方呼吁在其中描述了一个居民在里面的居民的房子。同样，Steichen和他的伴侣作为一个二重奏抵达，但是驾驶的Steichen不得不花宝贵的时间准备。居民没有生存。
“Could it have been better, if we had firefighters packed and ready to go? On a few of them, absolutely they would have. It would have made a big difference,” Steichen said. “Just that two to three extra minutes is all it takes.”
Meanwhile, call frequency has jumped in response to the pandemic. Peninsula Township Fire Department’s runs jumped by 19 percent in the past two years. Department Chief Fred Gilstorff said he and his crews — some of whom are part-time or volunteers — responded to 723 calls in 2021, up from 563 the year before.
“It stinks when you’re at an emeregency and something needs to be done,” Gilstorff said. “You’re looking around and you don’t have any bodies, you don’t have any staff.”
吉尔斯托夫说，他担心在他看到的每一场火灾中都有缺乏人员。
像Traverse City这样的城市部门都配备了专业的消防队员，但在更多农村地区的部门通常必须做更多的资源。在半岛乡，只有少数人。其他工作兼职工作或随叫随到。
Gilstorff试图staff 30 employees. At one point in 2017, the department was down to just 11 across two fire departments on Old Mission Peninsula. In 2021, he has been able to pull that number up to 26.
他的全职员工都在联合合同。他的大多数员工每小时15美元到16美元。
Gilstorff said the loss of generous retirement benefits was one element contributing to declining interest in the job. But pay is a factor, too, and the lifestyle isn’t for everyone. Full-time firefighters work 24 hours with 48 hour breaks.
“I think younger folks look at it and think they could do better working for themselves, working in an office, or that a job’s not worth risking your life,” said Gilstorff. “I can’t understand it. It’s the best job in the world.”
Grand Traverse Metro Fire首席Pat Parker表示，他的部门可以使用另外十几次兼职消防员。它很容易员工全部计时器，但兼职工作需要尽可能多的培训 - 50天的课程 - 并且在所有作业结束时都不提供福利和工作安全。
“他们只是不在那里，因为这是一个消防员所需的时间，”帕克说。2010年，帕克估计他的部门拥有多达80名员工，所有人都是志愿者。“我们从山顶掉了大约40个。”
在更多农村的Bellaire中，消防部门由支付的志愿者完全运行，这是一个在密歇根州常见的安排。只有15％的消防员都是STEICHEN等全职员工。百分之八十五个是兼职，支付，或完全以志愿者为基础工作。
Bellaire Fire Chijing Chuck Schumaker表示，他填写了25个中名单30.但他正在努力保持EMT。就像GT Metro一样，志愿部门不能承诺作为医疗培训的数小时和时间的奖励。
“All of the departments out here are the same way,” Schumaker said.
一些帮助来自不同形式的政府。若干乡镇将美国救援计划法案指向消防部门。
Meanwhile, state grants are covering the costs for new firefighter trainees enrolled at the Northwest Regional Fire Training Center. The money comes from MiLEAP, which in turn came from the Michigan Department of Labor and Education.
据Diane Culver，西北密歇根州的服务中心经理介绍，它已被用来覆盖25个新的消防员的入学费用$ 1,600的入学费用。
Culver说，第一个队列将于3月1日开始课程，其中包括一些未来的队列，举行了一些未来的队列。
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（c）2022纪录鹰（遍历城市，MICH）
Visit The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.) at record-eagle.com
