Area firefighters concerned with volunteer shortage

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – House Fires, brush fires, car accidents… They all have one thing in common.

Local volunteer firefighters are usually some of the first to respond to the scene.

For a job so critical to the community, there’s a major shortage of volunteers.

“Ten years ago, we had 65 people on roll. Today we have 30. That’s a 50 percent decrease in ten years,” said Fire Chief Wayne Doyle.

Doyle has been serving his community as a volunteer firefighter for almost 38 years.

Doyle is a volunteer, which means he still has to work a normal job during the day.

“I’ve just always liked emergency response. They built a station right around the corner from where I was living at that time and I joined… been there almost 38 years now,” said Doyle.

Doyle is the owner of Industrial Fire Protection in Columbus.

On a normal day, a volunteer could receive anywhere from 2 to 4 different emergency response calls, which means they would have to leave work.

“Somebody that will volunteer their time to go out whenever they can. May be 12 o’clock in the day time, may be 2 o’clock in the morning,” said Doyle.

Volunteer Fireman Ryan Baucom, is the owner of 3:21 Customs in Columbus. He’s no stranger to sacrificing work hours for an emergency either.

“9 times out of 10, I’m going to drop what I’m doing and go. Especially during the day, everybody’s at work. Unless they work 2nd or 3rd shift, there’s not a lot of people that can respond to that stuff,” said Baucom.

He’s only been a volunteer for about 5 years now, but he said he’s noticed a decline in membership.

“A lot of sacrificing. You get up in the middle of the night, even if you’ve got to go to work, to respond. It’s part of it,” said Baucom.He’s said it takes a special person to be a volunteer, but he believes there are plenty of candidates out there… Whether they know it or not.

“It’ll kinda go in waves sometimes. Sometimes you’ll get some people to join. It takes a special somebody to do it. You’ve got to want to do it, and you’ve got to love what you’re doing to do it,” said Baucom.

“I’d love to have to retired people that really do nothing but drive a truck for us. If they can get the truck and get it there, that saves one of us from having to go to the station,” said Doyle.

For more information on how to get involved with the Lowndes County Volunteer Fire Department, click here.