艾米莉安德森
The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
(MCT)
Mar. 17—Most of Iowa depends on志愿者消防部门回应火灾和其他紧急情况，但可用的志愿者的数量已经减少多年。
Of Iowa’s 738 registered fire departments, 662, or nearly 90 percent, are fully volunteer, according to the Iowa Fire Department Census. As recruiting for these departments gets more difficult, fire chiefs are finding other ways to be prepared for emergencies, including partnering with other departments.
“我们知道我们的下一个最接近的资源，”Hiawatha Fire首席标志的力量说。
相互和自动辅助
The Hiawatha Fire Department, a mostly volunteer department, partners with the nearby Robbins and Monroe Township fire departments in what is called an automatic aid agreement.
自动援助协议是互助协议的延伸，该系统通过该系统，消防部门在面临着一个部门的火灾时从附近的其他部门求助的系统，即独自的部门没有抗击的能力。
自动援助意味着无论何时a fire is reported in the coverage areas of Hiawatha, Robbins or Monroe Township, all three departments are automatically contacted. If the department with jurisdiction reaches the fire and determines it can handle it themselves, they call the other departments and let them know they can turn around.
权力表示，这种协议得到更多消防员to a fire faster by removing the time it takes to call for backup.
即使在大型互助协会中，自动援助协议也很受欢迎，如Johnson County的互助协会。据Coralville Fire州Oriey Schwitzer称，该协会是爱荷华州的第一个始于初学者之一。
约翰逊县有九个消防部门，还有几个有区间的各地，是协会的一部分。该协会中的许多部门都有自动援助协议与最接近的邻居。Coralville有一个自动协议与爱荷华州市，如果在州际公路境内的南侧和北方自由，如果在北侧报告火灾。
The Coralville Fire Department is primarily a volunteer department, but with five paid staff. Schwitzer said that while the department has seen a small decline in volunteers in the last few years, the larger problem it faces is retention and availability of volunteers.
保留
Many of the volunteers that train in Coralville are young people who are hoping to eventually get hired at a paying department.
“我在这里招聘的人加入我们的部门，他们喜欢帮助社区，但他们真的试图让他们的职业生涯，找到一个可以雇用的地方。所以他们将它用作踩踏石。“施维茨说。“它可能是爱荷华州城市或雪松急流，或者可以远离科罗拉多斯普林斯或堪萨斯城。我在全国各地都有成员。“
哥斯兰人消防局的前一名成员，杰森康诺·郎，他在阿肯色州担任全日制消防员，最近在职责中死于那里，并在Coralville埋葬了3月9日。
可用性
除了招募将坚持的志愿者，下一个问题志愿者部门面临的志愿者正在确保这些志愿者在紧急情况发生时可用。
Schwitzer说，大多数志愿者都有其他工作和义务，因此，当紧急情况发生时，他们并不总是可用。
“We do some unique things with shifts trying to get folks here in the evening. It’s enough to get a truck out the door fairly quickly. But in the daytime, it’s just the paid staff and all my paid staff have administrative tasks in their job,” Schwitzer said. “During the daytime sometimes it takes us a minute to get everybody rounded up because we could be in four different parts of the community doing our administrative work.”
权力说他面临着同样的问题。在Hiawatha，很多志愿者在Cedar Rapids白天工作，无法及时回来帮助火灾。
Anamosa Fire总理丹弗兰克同意，增加了人们在白天缺乏可用性，往往是让他们犯下志愿者的第一名。
“Anamosa没有足够的工作，让人们当地，所以我们在这方面斗争，”弗兰克说。“我认为很多这也归结为每个人都有这种繁忙的生活了。
“People are working 10 to 12 hour days and kids are involved in a bunch of different sports and activities and life just sort of gets the best of you, so that they don’t have the time or the ambition to dedicate toward a volunteer service.”
评论：（319）398-8328;emily.andersen@thegazette.com.
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（c）2022公报（雪松急流，爱荷华州）
参观Gazette（Cedar Rapids，爱荷华州）在TheGazette.com
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