FAIRFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — Fairfield County Fire Services is one of many departments struggling to hire more first responders, and for a department that mostly relies on volunteers, they say it provides difficulties.
"We are down, we have 120 volunteers that are rostered, and we have about 60 volunteers that are active with us," says Fairfield County Fire Chief Jason Pope.
While 60 are active, Pope says they need 60 more countywide to be in a good position, as their rural sites are struggling the most.
"The western portion of Fairfield County, which we call it Jenkinsville and Blair, we only have about 4 volunteers," Pope said, adding that they have had to seek help from Richland and Kershaw Counties for recent fires.
One local business owner, Maryanne Tolbert, said "I have heard about the shortage. They are advertising it, they're advertising it all over the county, they've got billboards up, like flashing signs they need volunteers ASAP."
Now, they are working to combat the shortage by hosting an open house on Thursday. It starts at 6 p.m. at the Winnsboro Administration Building, located at 350 Columbia Road.
"The purpose of this open house is for the public," Pope said. "It's for the public, for those who may be interested in volunteering who maybe don't have all of their questions answered. They just want to come, want to hear from us, to describe a little bit about what it means to be involved in the fire department, what it's about."
As for Tolbert, she hopes the open house works but she also hopes they allow those willing to help to fill different roles.
"Hopefully, they can attract people that don't only want to be fighting the fire," Tolbert said. "There are other things people can do in the fire departments as far as like rehab, different things help like manage, redo the tanks and resupply people as they come back out ... so that even if you're not really sure about going into a fire, that you could actually help in other ways."