The City of Bradford stands out among its neighbors because it has a paid fire department in what is mostly a rural area covered by volunteer departments.
Unlike the volunteer departments, which are seeing the average age of firefighters rise, the Bradford City Fire Department is not facing that issue.
“Overall this a young department. The older members are not much older than the younger members,” Fire Chief Eric Taylor said, adding they are considered a valuable asset to the department. “The younger members have a lot of valuable input for this department and it has been well-received.”
The department is required to have five firefighters on each shift; in addition to this they have an inspector and the fire chief. Although it has been able to maintain a younger department and is able to pay them for their service, it still faces recruiting issues, just like the surrounding volunteer departments.
“Recruiting has always been somewhat of a challenge for us,” Taylor said. “We offer a civil service test every year to two years and don’t generally get more than five people to sign up to take it. We have seen as few as two people take it.
“The hardest part to overcome is the fact we live in a rural area,” he added. “We are able to generate a lot of interest through traditional advertising methods and social media, but that interest isn’t always reflected in completed applications.”
Still, the majority of the people that did begin the process in Bradford are typically from a rural area.
“People from bigger areas don’t always want to relocate to this area,” he said. “We have had a little success in getting people from bigger areas, but there is no guarantee.”
Unlike the volunteer departments, Taylor is not opposed to the additional hours of training expected before becoming a firefighter. The number of hours required to become a basic firefighter was 48 hours 30 years ago, but is now 188.
He said the training provides a good foundation to prepare them for what they encounter when the fire calls come in.
“I would hate to see firefighter safety compromised by reducing the number of training hours,” Taylor said.
