MEYERSDALE, PA — Outside of the Meyersdale Volunteer Fire Department facility along Main Street in this Somerset County town, primarily known for its famous maple syrup, the annual festival and its proximately to the Great Allegheny Passage trail, sits a weathered monument to the men and women who volunteer to serve and protect the community.
The likelihood that people walk or drive past it every day without noticing is high. But for many in this tight-knit community who have experienced catastrophic emergencies, that memorial — adorned with a fire captain’s helmet and boots on either side of the engraved inscription of the Fireman’s Prayer — will always be their salvation:
“When I am called to duty, God wherever flames may rage,
give me strength to save a life, whatever be its age.
Help me to embrace a little child before it’s too late,
or save an older person from the horror of that fate.
Enable me to be alert to hear the weakest shout,
and quickly and efficiently to put the fire out.
I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me,
to guard my neighbor and protect his property.
And if according to your will I have to lose my life,
bless with your protecting hand my loving family from strife.”
Last week, when floods ravaged the West Virginia towns of Wheeling and Triadelphia, local volunteer firefighters were among the first units on the scene.
When President Donald Trump was getting set to head to Butler, Pennsylvania, for his rally in July of 2024, hundreds of volunteer firefighters and paramedics lined the ridge overlooking the Butler Farm Show complex, donning fluorescent vests. They were deployed hundreds of times into the massive crowd when people became overwhelmed by the heat.
When the shots rang out shortly after Trump began speaking, they were among the first responders who ran straight into the line of fire and up onto the stage to attend to those wounded or traumatized by the event. When Trump returned to Butler in October, those same men and women volunteer firefighters and first responders stood on that same ridge, ready for anything.
When I asked David, a member of the Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Company that staffed both events, he said the biggest struggle for volunteer fire companies across the country is getting young people to step up and serve.
When the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) was nearly destroyed by an alleged arsonist named Cody Allen Balmer, who used Molotov cocktails to set the governor’s mansion on fire, it wasn’t just Harrisburg’s finest city firefighters who showed up, but also several local volunteer companies.
Inside the Meyersdale Volunteer Fire Company’s hall, long tables line the rustic red linoleum-tiled floors. There is a large kitchen in the back with a stainless steel restaurant-grade stove, a fridge, and an assortment of goodies lining the countertop leading into the kitchen. Volunteer fire halls such as this aren’t just where the fire trucks wait to respond to fires or floods. They are often the center of communities, gathering places where people hold baby showers, weddings, funeral lunches, pancake breakfast fundraisers, and gun bashes — not just here but in thousands of fire halls across the country.
Today, members of the community, as well as several of the volunteer firefighters, gathered with Shapiro to discuss disaster relief for the victims of May’s flooding. The governor was also there to thank the volunteer firefighters for their efforts in evacuating families from over 50 homes trapped by the fast-rising Casselman River and motorists stranded in the swiftly moving storm.
Shapiro praised them for the risks they took as nearly 5 inches of rain fell in a very short period. He also emphasized their importance as the lifeblood of the community, telling the Washington Examiner that he worries about the drastic drop in the number of volunteer firefighters who are often on the front line, not just with fires but also with emergency rescues.
The steep decline in the number of people who volunteer as firefighters is a nationwide problem. Here in Pennsylvania, where the reliance on volunteer fire companies is one of the highest in the nation, it is particularly drastic.
According to the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Institute, a whopping 97% of Pennsylvania firefighters are volunteers. The number of volunteer firefighters has dropped from 60,000 to 38,000 in the past 25 years.
That number is a staggering 10th of the number of firefighters Pennsylvania had in the 1970s, when it peaked at 370,000.
Shapiro said this is something he has been concerned about for years.
“I’ve been worried for more than a decade where we’re seeing the number of volunteer firefighters going down drastically,” he said.
The Montgomery County Democrat said he thinks there is a government response that is important to help reverse that decline.
“I’ve put funding in my budget this year, historic level funding to help with recruitment and retention for firefighters to try and grow the ranks,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro added that we have to understand that culturally, these are folks who not only rush toward danger and put out fires, but they’re also the lifeblood of a community, and sometimes spiritual guides.
“Sometimes they’re the motivator for a community. It’s where– when there’s a community issue and there has to be a meeting, it’s at the fire hall. Or a wedding,” he said.
Shapiro said after the arson attack at his residence, “I wanted to not just thank the Harrisburg Bureau fire, which is a paid fire company, but all the others who responded. And one of the most emotional moments for me in all of this, literally brought me into tears, was when the chaplain from the Penn Township Fire Department, which is this tiny volunteer company and just outside Harrisburg, that chaplain came and gave me a handwritten prayer, that’s the prayer that I recite over our kids each night.”
APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COMMISSION UNDER THE KNIFE IN FEDERAL CUTS
“That is an example of them being the spiritual guides and the center of a community that not only helped save our lives, but does so much more than that. I think it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
Shapiro said we must invest more in recruitment and retention: “We’ve got to make sure that people value the work that these volunteers do. And I think we also have to encourage younger folks who are beginning to think about their lives to go into firefighting. I think it is a really noble profession.”