ST. MARYS — Recruitment is getting tougher, but the St. Marys Crystal Fire Department has managed to protect the city quite well, according to Fire Chief Bill Kraus.

During Monday’s St. Marys City Council work session, Kraus gave council an overview of the fire department’s service in 2016.

The department responded to 294 incidents, six more than in 2015, which included general alarms, rescue calls, training/drills, public service, investigations, carbon monoxide investigations, fire prevention, work nights and mutual aid. It worked with other local rescue services 54 times in 2016.

The department responded to 28 fire calls, 40 rescue calls, 57 calls for hazardous conditions (such as chemical spills), 39 service calls (such as water problems), 31 good intent calls (including parades, smoke odors etc.), 33 false alarms and 66 special incidents (training, fire prevention).

The busiest weekday for calls in 2016 was Friday, Kraus said, when the department had 45 incidents. He said the numbers show that Monday was the busiest weekday with 60 incidents, however, that includes department meetings and training sessions.

The department’s average response time to calls was 5 minutes and 42 seconds. This accounts for the time from when the members’ pagers are activated until the first vehicle arrives.

Total loss in 2016 included five passenger cars, one commercial truck, one tractor and one piece of commercial equipment. The total loss was valued at $1,226,489, a decrease of $950,924 from the previous year. The department saved $19,184,945 worth of property.

Each October, employers release workers that are members of the department for Fire Prevention Week services. This includes doing fire drills at local schools. Kraus said the day begins at 10 a.m. and runs through 3 p.m., with a short break for lunch. This is a service the department has been providing for 50 to 60 years, he said.

The department also does a Prom Promise program that rotates between St. Marys Area High School and Elk County Catholic High School (St. Marys). It shows students the results of drinking and driving. There have been no drinking and driving prom-related deaths in St. Marys as long as the program has been taking place, he said.

The department is fortunate because so many area employers are willing to release fire department members for these events and to respond to calls, he said. “We would be in a world of hurt if they didn’t release our firefighters,” Kraus said.

Recruitment and retention have gotten tougher and tougher, Kraus said. “It doesn’t seem like the younger generation is as interested as we were. They aren’t knocking our doors down.” Those who are in their 40s and 50s have been picking up the slack for younger members that just aren’t joining. He said, “I don’t know what the answer is.”

Kraus said he believes the biggest barrier to getting younger men and women to join is the dramatic increase in the number of training hours required. It had been 48 hours for years, but the state raised it to 188 hours. This requires firefighters to commit every weekend from January to October to training. He said they have met with state representatives and the fire commissioners, but they are sticklers for the training hours. It’s a problem all over the county, he said, adding there have been a lot of good firefighters that have started out with 48 hours of training.

In the past, the department almost never had to call for mutual aid, now it relies on mutual aid from two to three companies just so there is enough manpower to handle house fires. Now he said he can be assured when the call goes out in St. Marys for a house fire the Fox Township Volunteer Fire Department is already preparing to come help and they can be assured St. Marys is doing the same for them.

The Crystal Fire Department picked up a few new members when the age was dropped to 18-years-old from 21 ten years ago, Kraus said, but there have been few new members since. The department has brought a lot of retired guys back in just to help with traffic control, etc., to make up for the lack of new members.

It had also been common in the past for firefighting to be a family activity, with a lot of sons joining their fathers and a lot of brothers joining, but the department is not seeing that anymore, he said. Today, a lot of children are moving out, going to college and living in different areas.

Despite the obstacles, Kraus said the department is still going strong and continues to protect the city.