When you call 911, you expect help to arrive, but who answers when there aren't enough firefighters to answer the call?

Across the Lehigh Valley, fire departments are facing growing challenges, fewer firefighters, rising costs, changing fire behavior, and more demands than ever before.

Tonight on this community conversation, sounding the alarm, we'll discuss the issues facing the people who run toward danger and what it will take to keep our communities safe.

Here's your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Good evening, and welcome to this community conversation.

Sing the alarm live from the Allentown Fire Training Academy.

I'm you by Lehigh Valley public media.

Year after year, Pennsylvania is among the states leading the nation in fire deaths.

We currently come in second with 91 deaths this year in house fires.

That's following New York with 105, according to the U.S.

Fire Administration.

The content team at Lehigh Valley Public Media has been reporting on the issues plaguing our local first responders over the past year, and tonight's themes reflect that.

Reporting across Pennsylvania and right here in the Lehigh Valley, fire departments are facing a growing challenge staffing the number of volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania has dropped dramatically over the past five decades, from an estimated 360,000 to just 30,000 today.

That's a decline of roughly 92%.

At the same time, local departments are responding to increasingly complex emergencies, and today's fires can behave very differently than the fires people face generations ago.

Modern homes contain more synthetic materials and furnishings that can contribute to faster fire growth, and that means less time for residents to escape and less time for firefighters to make critical decisions.

And the danger doesn't end when the fire is out.

Firefighters face increased risk of occupational cancer and other long term health problems.

A major federal study of nearly 30,000 career firefighters found a 9% increase in cancer diagnosis and a 14% increase in cancer related deaths, compared with expected rates in the general population.

Then there's the question of money.

Fire departments need people.

They need training, they need protective equipment, and they need increasingly sophisticated and expensive apparatus to answer the call.

So tonight we're asking, can the Lehigh Valley continue to provide the level of fire protection our communities expect?

And what will it take to make sure firefighters have the resources they need?

Today's fires burn hotter, faster and are often fueled by toxic synthetic materials, forcing firefighters to rethink their strategies.

Reporter Jason Adi takes us to a live fire training session in Whitehall to see how recruits from across northeastern Pennsylvania are preparing for day one on the job.

Don't worry, I'll be broadcast.

Should be pretty quick and easy.

Only five recruits.

A basic house call isn't what it used to be.

We're dealing with different materials in our homes, different construction styles, again, to adapt to, better engineering.

We've moved to hybrids, electric vehicles, compressed natural gas, hydrogen.

There's more and more just dangers that are associated with all those different things.

Your basic Walmart is a giant chemistry set.

While the hazards of the job have evolved.

Allentown Fire Captain John Hamel says the motivation to step up to fight fires hasn't changed.

I think the type of individual that helps their community, whether they get a paycheck for it or not, pretty much remains the same.

Hamel says today's recruits are walking into a far more dangerous battle.

Let's get you on the air here and see how you do breathing.

It's a little bit more complex than, say, in the 1950s, where fire departments did firefighting.

Now we do so much more.

From water rescue to hazmat to rope rescue divers, stepping into the burn room was an instant reality check.

Within seconds, I was weighed down by more than 40 pounds of gear in temperatures topping 600 degrees.

That gave me a quick sense of what these recruits pushed through for hours.

Personal accountability safety system.

Okay.

And all that means.

It's a fancy term for you here.

That means you're standing still.

Okay.

Okay.

The idea behind this is if I fall over, whatever it be, I ran out of air, I had a massive heart attack, and I just dropped, and I don't move.

This guy is going to go to full alarm.

Temperatures inside the burn room top 600 degrees.

So this is their first real interaction with pulling hose lines off the engine, advancing them into the structure, and actually extinguishing live fire by the end of the academy.

Recruits will be trained how to fight fires, handle situations with hazardous materials and perform water rescues.

The event of equipment failure, like three millimeters are wonderful devices, but they don't always work.

You've got to rely on the other senses.

You got to be able to go back to basics.

Hamel says firefighters don't get a grace period.

Day 1st May be the biggest fire we've ever had in the city, and they need to be able to operate at any basic level.

Day one.

And thank you for taking us behind the scenes during training to address many of the issues we just heard about.

We're joined by the Pennsylvania Career Fire Chiefs Association first Vice president Scott Little, the president of Bethlehem Local 735, Lieutenant Lou Jimenez, who is also the Northeast District Service representative for the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association, East Allen Township Volunteer Fire Department Deputy Chief Ray Henry and Upper Nazareth Township Supervisor Scott Silvanus.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

Lou.

We're going to start with you.

How many career firefighter positions right now are we looking at?

Vacant in Bethlehem right now across the valley?

Talk to me about vacancies and how, if it's difficult or not, to fill those vacancies right now, because it seems like staffing is a big challenge.

Definitely.

Staffing is a big challenge across the state.

We currently have about we're about 90% staffed, but we're having some difficulty getting getting people into the seats.

And just like it was said in a video, you know, your first day could be your worst day.

And there's some there's some stats I'd like to share with you from across the state.

Pennsylvania Professional firefighters did a statewide staffing survey of the organization, and out of 63 career fire departments, the average number of personnel on apparatus is 2.29 for a fire engine and 2.07 for a fire truck.

Now, with that being said, the 1750 standard should be for firefighters per apparatus and taking into account density and things like that could be upwards of 5 or 6.

In the Lehigh Valley, most most of the areas of Bethlehem Easton would qualify for that 5 or 6 per apparatus.

Sure.

And you're saying it's 2 to 3 at this time, correct.

Give or take.

Correct.

And that is statewide.

Wow.

That's incredible.

And so you're seeing that right here in the Lehigh Valley around the major cities and throughout the smaller towns as well.

That is correct.

Okay.

Some are better than others.

However, only 1% of the career fire departments in the state of Pennsylvania are NFPA 1750 compliant.

Wow.

What are you seeing in terms of turnover at these at your department and across the state?

This is a job that you're required to to burn, run into a burning building when other people are running out.

So what's turnover like especially compared to maybe five years ago.

So you'll have turnover for people that want to relocate.

You also have turnover for departments that offer better benefits, that offer a more secure work schedule.

You have a lot of retirements going on.

You know, it seems to it seems to come in waves.

And the experience I'm having, it seems to come at around every 15 to 20 years, and we're in that right now.

For example, in the city of Bethlehem right now, we have at least 36 members out of 104 member department that have less than three years on the job.

Okay.

I want to bring Ray you into this conversation.

Another you know, a different side of the coin here.

That's the career departments.

You're representing the volunteer side of things.

How often are enough volunteers showing up for our fires around the Lehigh Valley right now?

Would you say not enough?

If you look at it overall, I believe, you know, departments are always battling that.

One of the unique things we face or face as a challenge is in career staffing.

You have the ability to know at least a rig would be on a road, or an engine would be on the road.

Where we look at it as, are you going to gather enough of those members to get that apparatus on the road and be able to do the job that you'd want to do it safely, as Lou says, with the career staffing.

But a lot of ours comes down to, are you going to get the rig on the road to make that difference?

What are you seeing just in raw numbers, you know, today versus five, ten years ago, in terms of folks who are able to volunteer, I think you can look at a couple different ways.

And if you went back ten years ago, you you could fill an apparatus.

You could probably put 2 or 3 of them out out of your station and, you know, assembled with crews.

We're now I think most departments are looking to get that 4 or 5 member crew on that apparatus, just to get that one out there to be to be able to do the job.

And then our biggest concern is when you start looking at hours of the day for us in my department, we just ran stats and 62% of our calls are during 6 to 6.

When I run that poll through my membership in my organization, whose available from 6 to 6, you'll have 2 or 3 guys and those are retired because the rest are working a common Monday through Friday, you know, 8 to 5 job so that availability drops drastically in it makes it very dangerous in the communities on the outskirts.

Sure.

Has that kind of changed as societies change?

More people are working, jobs are more demanding than ten years ago.

What do you think striving that you're looking at a whole different lifestyle?

I believe, you know, when the time demands that are in there.

Parents are working two jobs.

Sports are a whole different world.

When now, when, you know, they were just.

You take your child to sports, but now you can go to travel teams and they're expanded.

So your investment in your family, you know, grows deeper and takes you away from the ability probably to volunteer.

Sure.

We're going to talk more about that, but I want to bring in Chief Scott Little.

Here.

You are from the department.

So a little bit out, but you're kind of also looking at the broad state numbers as well.

And so our departments across the state seeing these same issues that we're hearing from, you know, career departments and volunteer departments as well.

Yeah.

So I think part of it, as we look across the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania has the most amount of fire companies in the United States.

So right now we have roughly 2500 organizations providing local service.

So when we look at that dynamic of all volunteer combination and career, there's those challenges everywhere across.

So that's one of the things that we're doing.

You got a challenging issue with the amount of training hours required, because obviously no community wants to have untrained firefighters responding to help, right?

So we're seeing that across the Commonwealth and trying to address it.

2018 SR six was commissioned using all stakeholders across the Commonwealth to come up with 30 recommendations that how the state government can assist all fire departments across the Commonwealth at the local level.

And those initiatives still not all have gotten across the finish line.

Some are still in the process, but we continue to make that awareness that that was commissioned jointly by a lot of stakeholders involved to address these issues.

And here we are.

That was in 2018, 2026.

We're still addressing the same issues we saw then.

What are some of the solutions that we're looking at here, and are they the same solutions across the board or is it individualized for each department?

A lot of it's individualized because each community is different.

Right to our needs are all different from an urban environment.

As Lou talked about to a suburban or a rural community in Pennsylvania.

So that's why it is such a challenge to try.

And because one size doesn't fit all in the Commonwealth.

So that is one of our huge struggles working with the State Fire Commissioner's Office on things like grant programs.

And that's one of the things that we're trying to drive is the grants and getting additional funding that way.

But we also know local communities need the support, need to be educated by their local fire companies, fire departments to help in that narrative, and also for the fire companies to be the storytellers of the things and why we need the things, in particular the health and safety aspect of the firefighters and why we need the gear that we need and why it costs.

The cost is high in most of the things that we do in the fire service, but there has to be that joint partnership as we do it.

Sure, we're going to talk more about the health and safety of our firefighters in just a few minutes.

I want to bring in you just mentioned cost.

And so this is where our our township supervisor comes in here.

And thank you so much for joining the conversation.

And so when it comes to places like Upper Nazareth Township, when you are looking at a budget, how much of that budget is going to our first responders, specifically our firefighters?

When you are planning for the new year?

Well, specifically for the fire department, ours is volunteer.

So we look at it not as a cost or an expense more than an investment in them, because it is important part of the community protection.

Right.

The fire department is the fire.

Our fire budget is about 20% of the overall budget of the township.

That doesn't count.

We get a lot of grants for them.

So that's doubling that amount is what our contributing.

Scott, let me ask you this.

What's the biggest ask from the fire department when they're coming to the township supervisors to ask for something to be paid for, something to be written into the budget?

Well, they keep their own budget.

They ask us for money.

They we recently had a expansion or remodeling of the firehouse itself that was started off at like a $800,000 expansion turned into 2 million just because of the cost after Covid and all that just went crazy.

We did get we did manage to get like $1 million of grant from the state on that.

So that was very helpful.

But there's still $1 million to pay for their new trucks.

There's like 5050 month wait for trucks.

And during that time the cost doubled on those two.

I want to put that in perspective.

We say 50 months.

That's close to five years for a truck that you're putting in today and that you may need today.

Right.

And then you're waiting years for this.

And that's not just unique to your township.

Let me ask you this.

How often are your folks, do you know, responding to fires and may need to either call for backup or may not have the manpower to respond to it?

I can't say specifically, but I do believe that our we're pretty well staffed.

We have a lot of dedicated volunteers.

We're lucky.

In that case.

I hear the issues that are going on.

I think our township has been fortunate.

Absolutely.

Ray, I want to bring it back to you and talk about volunteering as we just as we just mentioned, what are the challenges to getting people in the door?

Is it is it not getting them in the door?

Is it retaining them or is it both?

It's both getting folks in the door.

You know, we we went a big campaign.

We were at the point in time at our department, probably three and a half, four years ago that we were looking at, you were going to wind up closing the doors.

We realized at that point in time in for fire departments that are sitting in a crowded are listening to this, you really have to be cognizant of what's going on in your organization, because in a flick of a switch, it's it's over with.

We realized that dialog needed to be happening with our local government, our council members, getting them up to pace on that.

And then we just ran big campaigns.

We looked at recruitment and retention programs throughout the country, just not the Commonwealth, and started trying to find things that would fit things that we could afford and ways to get folks in the door.

We're a unique community.

I have an average age of 50 years, 54 years and older.

I have a retirement age community.

Most of those folks do not want to be volunteering at that time.

So through recruitment, which was getting out there, community driven, looking at our parks, doing town halls, educating our people and the residents of the township and even including our businesses, we were able to start pulling things together with funding from the township, realizing that, well, we went to a stipend program.

So, you know, we built a roster back up.

And this evening I actually have staffing sitting in my department, you know, from 6:00 tonight to 6:00 tomorrow morning.

There's folks in the United States, and that makes a big difference.

It makes a big difference.

Sure.

Absolutely.

When it comes to volunteer fire departments around the region, we've seen some mergers.

Correct.

What's that been like?

Well, a lot of it comes down to I know in our region you're seeing a lot.

That's whether it's a merger or consolidation.

There's a lot of folks that talk about doing regionalization.

Will that happen?

We don't know.

But it's a hard thing for the fire service to realize that sometimes you have to look at yourself, and you have to give up that pride and tradition and be able to move forward to protect the communities that we serve.

We might be good now, but down the road again, that can change rapidly.

So you are seeing a lot in our area and it's for the better.

You know, working together is great, but you also got to remember the downside to something of that nature is we tried it adding into a box assignments with multiple companies where our alarm, our call volume went up.

Well, if you can't handle your current call volume, you're kind of putting additional demand on your personnel when you join another force, a township next to you and respond to those.

So you have to look at burnout.

I mean, you're already fighting a battle, but now you just took on the task of more incidents to respond to.

So it's it's a it's a juggling act for challenge for sure.

Scott, I want to ask on the state level, if you're seeing this recently here in the Lehigh Valley, we saw Upper Macungie Township merge with Macungie and Albertus.

What does that look like?

And our talks, you know, you just talked about changing certain programs.

It takes years.

Do these mergers take years?

And what does that look like to merge these departments so that our communities are covered?

Yes.

So that's a big topic right now from the state pushing it out through local governments and also through community economic development and helping out the local communities that are coming to the state and asking for support and how to find those ways to ensure they have fire trucks responding in their communities.

And that is one of the highest priorities right now.

As we look at cost and local communities, we talk about $2 million plus ladder trucks, million dollar plus pumpers.

Communities have to work together.

And that is one of those steps in sharing resources.

So we don't duplicate effort with neighboring communities.

And really looking at those resources and the benefits of consolidations or mergers is taking place.

Sure, you're shaking your head as well.

Where do you stand on this?

Well, in regards in regards to sharing resources and things of that nature, you know, we have to bring up the topic of mutual aid and, you know, getting mutual aid, getting a program, a mutual aid around the area that works is is something that I think needs to happen many times.

You know, I see companies from across the city.

I live and go across my city in order to go help somebody else.

And I think every, every department in this area, in this state should have a mutual aid plan.

That's that we're already built into the dispatch at this time.

Some places it's about calling it a favor or are doing a special call.

And then and those in those minutes, it's very, very critical.

The first few minutes of a fire, very critical.

It's it's not the time to be looking for an outstation to come in and help you.

You know, the other thing too is within the career fire service, a lot of departments require certain residency restrictions and while that did work years ago, it is not working anymore because we have a lot of areas that are growing, such as the Lehigh Valley where rent is is sky high and a lot of our younger members are wanting to live outside the area so they can afford to, you know, to live on the salary that they make when they start.

So some of the things that we could do is build a better mutual aid plan in the area, which does just like just like Ray said, is talking about letting taking your egos down.

You know, it's career departments, talking to volunteer departments, volunteer departments, talking to career departments.

But what's more important to is municipality talking to municipality, because that's where things get done.

Sounds like communication is key here, not just among municipalities, but with the township as well.

I also mentioned that we're going to talk about health, and I'd like to switch gears to that right now.

But first let's take a look at a story about firefighter health.

The World Health Organization now classifies occupational exposure from firefighting as a Group one carcinogen, the highest possible cancer risk level in Bethlehem.

A woman who lost her firefighter father to cancer is now working to raise awareness about the need for fire cancer screenings for first responders.

Our Megan Frank has that story.

My dad had a motto or a saying all days are good days.

It was early on when he was going through treatment.

I had talked to him on the phone and he was just telling me about his day, and I said, I'm really glad you had a good day.

And he said, you know what?

All days are good days.

But he just meant, you know.

Yeah, some days suck and crappy things happen, and but it just means that I'm still here.

I still get another chance to do better.

Love harder.

Try, try my best.

As Angela prepares to open her new Bethlehem Bake shop, Frosted Chaos, she's carrying on a legacy.

Everything she bakes honors her late father, Lou, a former firefighter.

My dad was a big, big cheerleader of mine when I first started my business in 2010 and always believed in me, always pushed to do this, Mel built a following with Sugar Babe cupcakes and even landed a stint on Food Network's Chopped.

But her world stopped in 2017 when Lou was diagnosed with blood cancer.

We had never heard of multiple myeloma to be by his side through treatments, Angela closed up shop.

Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow.

His doctor at Penn, he had said we coined this the nine over 11 cancer because they saw so many cases of that after nine over 11.

Calling multiple myeloma the nine over 11 cancer is not an exaggeration, according to studies published in the Blood Cancer Journal.

Firefighters exposed to ground Zero toxins showed nearly double the risk of developing a blood disorder that directly precedes multiple myeloma when structures burn.

Firefighters aren't just battling heat, they're moving through a dense cocktail of airborne toxins like benzene, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metal particulates.

CDC data shows career firefighters face a 9% higher rate of overall cancer diagnosis and 14% higher rate of cancer related deaths.

It was their early 80s, and there was a chemical spill up at Lehigh University, and my dad was one of the first people on the scene, and I know there was no fire.

The glass was falling all around, and my dad had gone into the building and he saw a police officer down and, you know, natural instinct.

My dad said back then he just took he took his face pack his, all of his gear that was helping him to breathe and put it on this, this police officer, and got him out of the building.

And he shielded him on the way out because glass was falling, he went back into the building.

He kept going back and forth without this equipment on.

There was an article written about him.

He ended up getting hospitalized, and on his discharge paper there was a list of, you know, chemicals that he was exposed to and gene mutations.

At my dad's viewing at Connell, the first person in line, we didn't recognize him, but he came over to us and it was a it was the police officer that my dad saved.

I always get very emotional.

And he had said to my brother or my mom and I, he said, I'm standing here today because of this man.

He saved my life.

And he said I wanted to be the first in line to pay my respects to him.

A routine screening caught lose cancer, but Angela soon discovered free screenings aren't standard for first responders.

That realization hit home as one by one, other firefighters on her dad's shift began getting sick, too.

There's a group of them all from the same shift and all around the same age range, mid to late 60s that had passed away from cancer.

A lot of people might not have the options to have the coverage that allows them to get those screenings, so free screenings would just help detect so much earlier and help people kind of get the the support that they need.

To keep her father's legacy alive.

Mel Peto is taking the fight beyond the kitchen.

She's now on the board of the Cancer Support Community of the Greater Lehigh Valley, demanding free screenings for first responders.

And as she reopens her Bethlehem bakery, she's holding tight to the lesson her dad left behind.

That every day is still a good day to try again.

It's a powerful reminder of the hidden risks our firefighters face long after the flames are put out.

And we do want to acknowledge that Angela is here in the audience tonight.

We thank you so much for sharing your story, Angela, and being here with us.

Thank you.

And so, Chief Little, I'll come to you.

What is being done across the state at our local departments to make sure that our firefighters are safe when they're keeping us safe?

Yes.

So right now there's a multiple House, Senate and also the House bills in the Commonwealth in Harrisburg, where we have local lawmakers who are identified the risk to firefighters.

And it is both volunteer and career to make this legislative changes.

And some of those things are the physicals to make sure they have the NFPA 1582 physicals, finding a funding stream to help organizations, because we know they're going to run between 3 and $5000 to get the full physical and workup for all these firefighters.

So finding those funding streams, also looking at the overarching cancer screenings and also some of the turnout gear, removing the PFAS that we know is also causing occupational issues for firefighters.

So those are things.

But they all come with where's the funding coming from?

And that's what is really at this point, getting held up at the state Capitol is finding those funding sources to help support all of our local communities and their first responders.

Thank you so much.

This this conversation will continue towards the end of our program.

I want to open our our program up to some audience questions.

Right now.

We have Megan Frank in the audience with a viewer question for us.

Yeah, Brett.

So we did get one from our online community from this is actually from Mike krill.

He's the former fire chief of Easton.

He wanted to ask about consolidations and mergers, which we already touched on.

And specifically, how do you promote a concept like that to individuals who don't are just not sure that a merger is the right fit for their community, right.

You want to touch on that.

So obviously he's taking a good look at your organization and a whole and then being able to work with your local government because there are going to be a major part of that.

You have the fit for that to be able to consolidate, it's going to come down through that again.

We have to give up a little bit of our pride and traditions, be able to go to our local government and work with a local department to be able to consolidate, merge, cut costs for those townships or boroughs to make things happen.

It's hard.

It is very hard.

Why isn't it done at the Commonwealth level that we could look at regionalization or county based firefighting?

But unfortunately for the gentleman on my left, it falls on their shoulders.

The local level government is responsible for fire protection in the Commonwealth.

So I just think you need all those folks to get together to be able to come up with a good game plan.

All right.

Thank you, Megan, and we'll have time for more audience questions at the end of the program.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for answering all these questions.

We'll bring you back towards the end of the program for more audience questions as well.

We hear now from some folks with firsthand experience.

Six months after a devastating house fire, a Bethlehem family is still waiting for a place to call home.

Fontaine wood, her partner, and their two young children lost virtually everything in February, from books to toys to irreplaceable baby memories.

Today, the family remains in a rental unit while work on their house drags on.

Reporter Megan Frank takes us to the site of that home, which has been stripped down to the studs.

This was my son's room.

We just needed it this last Christmas and well, now it's gone.

There were bathroom was here.

It's funny.

It's everything so spills.

So smaller than it used to.

This was the kids playroom.

We had a lot of fun in this room, to be honest.

And this was my daughter's room.

She's three years old.

Her crib was right here.

I lost my home in February to a fire.

Pretty much what's left of it is what you're seeing right now.

And it's it's been a journey and it's been a learning journey that we're on right now.

It's not easy to recover from a fire, and we're trying to use what resources is out there.

And there are some resources, for example, the Red cross, which was very helpful for us.

It was a cigarette butt that wasn't extinguished.

It was dumped in the garbage and it sat for hours.

Smoldering eventually became a fire in a bin, and that spread to the walls of the outside of the carport and eventually went to the ceiling and golf and got into the roof.

And that's how it got inside the house.

I remember making this for one of her Christmas McCue was probably like five here in this ornament.

It became a tradition because we gave to the family, and I thought I lost it, to be honest, because all of my Christmas decorations was in the attic space.

And that's where the majority of the fire was and it got burned.

We were in a hotel for a while, and then from a hotel we found the temporary housing to to live in the Poconos wasn't the ideal situation, but it's what was available.

We've had help from people in our community, families, friends come together and help us to help put the pieces back together.

But it's been months still, and we're not sure when we'll be able to come back to our home.

There's some time.

I just feel hopeless because I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Things can change.

There could be more delays for us, but it's just.

I'm not sure.

Fontaine's story shows the sudden shock of a house fire and the immediate struggle that follows.

But what happens years after the dust settles?

Eight years after a devastating blaze upended Maria Restos life in a matter of minutes today, she's on the other side of that tragedy, using her lived experience to offer hope to fellow survivors, our reporter Stephanie visited resto at her home in Allentown to learn what it takes to heal after losing everything.

I was sitting back here with my youngest granddaughter when one of my grandkids came running and telling me, grandma, there's a fire!

I go to the bathroom, look, and sure enough, this flames.

My mechanic that came to check on my vehicle that day happened to bang my door open and he told me, Maria, you have smoke coming out of the chimney.

This fire, he runs upstairs.

When the attic area opens the door, he tells me everybody is out of the house is going up in flames.

It's kind of hard because you're like in shock.

You've seen it, but you're not believing it.

You know?

You're believing that.

Okay, it's smoke.

It's it's going to be fine.

You think everything's going to be fine?

You're going to see your way to the fire department.

Come.

They're going to handle it.

You're going to go back home.

It kicked in finally, at the end of the night when the fire marshal came to me and he said, there's no way you could go back inside the house.

All my pictures.

I had pictures of my mother, my father, my grandparents pictures, my aunts and uncles, my mother's pictures when she was young, my parents pictures, my aunts and uncles.

I mean, my mother was a she collected pictures and so did I. I wish I would have been more prepared preparing the sense of having a go bag prepare of having.

A medal, I guess, where you could keep things that important.

Pictures, papers.

I learned a lot from that.

I learned a lot from that experience.

What?

To keep safe, you need to prepare not just a house fire for any kind of emergency.

You have to be prepared.

You do make copies of birth certificate IDs, everything.

Because it will take time before you could get paperwork back.

Social carry.

Birth certificate.

Driver's license.

You need a plan.

Powerful proof that there is life and hope on the other side of tragedy.

And some good reminders there about fire safety and talking about fire safety.

Joining us now, our Easton fire chief, Henry Hennings, Allentown assistant chief of fire prevention, Jonathan Steed, the executive director of the American Red cross, Pennsylvania Rivers chapter, Peter Brown and the community engagement coordinator for the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Jose Rivera.

Folks, thank you so much for joining us for this important conversation.

Chief, Steve, we'll start with you.

What is the most common cause of house fires that you're seeing in Allentown?

And how often is this happening within the city of Allentown?

The most common cause of the fire, as we see, are cooking fires specifically unattended.

Typically we see that facilitates the fire starting Allentown.

We use a fire suppression response, meaning it is a legitimate fire approximately 250 times a year.

Wow.

That's incredible.

I know when I was a child, my mother had an oil fire.

She thought that you take the oil and you put water on it and that that spread it more.

Is that a common a common cause of it?

It is.

It's very common.

People get comfortable making food.

Oftentimes people will make similar meals multiple times a week.

If you get comfortable.

That's when accidents happen.

So often very unattended.

Sure.

Easton Fire Chief Hennings here.

And the materials that are in our homes are changing as well.

And our lifestyles are changing, whether it be electric vehicles, as we heard earlier, synthetic materials in the home.

How much is this changing the way that fires behave?

And how often are you called to these calls where you just have less time than you used to?

So now the with the modern furniture, the time that people have to escape a fire once they realize there is one has diminished to minutes, could be seconds.

In some cases, the synthetic material burns hotter.

The gases and the heat collect.

They spread rapidly because of the open concept of homes.

Now the older homes used to have separated rooms.

Now everything is the open concept and it just it hits the ceiling and it travels and it'll trap you before you know it.

And so what's changed?

Okay, so we have the synthetic materials, but what's changed in the response time are people.

Is it less time to get out of the home?

Is it less time that you need to get out there?

I mean, every fire you need to put out right away.

But are you having less time to respond to it before it gets out of control?

What's this looking like?

It's less time for the occupants to get out.

And depending upon, like I said, when the fire is actually discovered, sometimes people are complacent.

They hear the smoke detector go off.

They don't think much about it.

It's just another nuisance, especially if you're in an apartment building where somebody cooking food or at the college campuses, we have a lot.

People burn microwave popcorn.

Nobody leaves.

We've all we've all smelled that smell.

Yes.

Well, that's where the complaint kicks in.

They don't evacuate when they should.

Gotcha.

So you need to pay attention when that's going off.

It's going off for a reason.

Get out of the building.

So those delays will create chaos for the fire department.

We have another issue as it is with staffing levels.

When you show up to a fire, there's so many different things that you need to be doing on the fire ground right away.

Once there's smoke, you're going to have to go in the buildings and start pulling people out.

Wow, wow.

Chief Steed, what are the most important ways to or easiest ways to prevent fires right now in our homes?

For folks at home who are watching this.

What are some things we need to be doing in our homes to make sure that they're there?

Fire safe or fire ready?

First and foremost, I would say it's a mindset to be developed.

It can happen to you.

Nobody wants to believe it can.

And it's inconvenient, but it can happen to you.

Next, I would highly encourage people to get smoke detectors that work and make sure that they are tested.

Nowadays we have ten year smoke detectors.

You can set them and forget them for ten years.

There is no excuse not to be prepared anymore.

You test them a few times a year, once a month, and you'll be good to go.

How often are you going in?

And they don't work?

We're going in very often.

They don't work.

So make sure you're testing it on a routine basis.

Correct.

I will say my family experienced a house fire a few years ago.

My dishwasher caught on fire in the middle of the night.

You know, I went to bed, ran the dishwasher.

Thank goodness for the smoke alarms.

And it was only.

I mean, we were still out of the house for a few months, as you heard with some of the folks in those videos.

But it could have been a lot worse if our smoke detector wasn't working.

I want to bring in you, Peter Brown from the American Red cross.

This is something that you guys drive home time and time again.

Yeah, and we partner with both of these gentleman's fire companies to do a smoke alarm installation program in home fire safety training.

In the last ten years, we've installed over 8000 smoke alarms in the Lehigh Valley.

We're what's called a second responders.

So we work all the time with the fire department's paid and volunteer.

But our our role there is to take care of the people so the firefighters can focus on the fire.

And our volunteers can start to address the needs of the family.

The smoke alarm issue is absolutely critical.

Our national data shows that your odds of surviving a home fire increased by over 50%.

If you're out of the home within two minutes, and working smoke alarms are absolutely critical to being able to do that.

The other thing that we do is a lot of community based education where we are teaching children, young adults, seniors the importance of getting out of the house and of having a place to meet outside of your home on an adjacent property.

I've been on fire scenes where there were fatalities because parents went in, because they didn't know their children had gone out the back door of the house and were actually safe.

So that's just a terrible, terrible tragedy that with training and practice, those are the two things that we talk about all the time.

You have to know what to do by getting some training, and then you have to practice with your family.

Yeah.

What I'm hearing here is, yes, we can tell you, but make sure you're practicing.

Do it tonight.

Don't wait for a good time to do it.

Do it now.

Correct.

100%.

And, Jose, the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley steps in as well to help some of our fire victims.

We heard two of the victims who had fires six months ago.

Eight years ago this year in Allentown, there were two really major fires.

And the United Way was there helping the victims right away.

In what way are you partnering with both the fire departments to assist them and help these victims?

It's funny, like I stated when we were having a private conversation, this all started a year ago in this building when we were talking about how do we do prevention the right way?

How do we support our community and our families who don't know?

Because the community turnover is so big.

Second, it's our role is to inspire hope in some sense of normalcy when when these things happen, this is the lowest, one of the lowest points of their life.

And just making sure that they have their basic necessities food, water, a change of clothes, give them back that human decency and dignity.

Understand that they just lost everything.

Imagine waking up and reaching for your toothbrush, reaching for your brush and nothing's there.

Like you, you lost your whole identity pictures, your paperwork, everything.

And it's like, how do we help them start all over?

And we start by wrapping the community around them and giving them some sense of hope and making sure that their well-being comes first.

Sure.

Any stories from those fires that you heard from the victims?

I know we spoke to some of the victims from from the most recent Allentown fire to to prepare for this show, but, you know, what are you hearing from their first hand?

Did they say, you know, we didn't we didn't have a plan.

We should have had one.

What do you think that they would have wished they've known to be better prepared?

The Front Street fire.

A lot of those survivors all said the same thing.

They were prepared.

They got their insurance, they got all this.

But when it happens, you're not prepared.

And a lot of them were on vacation.

So imagine coming back and having nothing.

And like you couldn't save yourself.

That's what they said.

Like coming home and my house burned down like I'm on vacation.

I'm supposed to be building memories, and this is what happened.

We're still working with some of these families because understanding housing is one of the hardest needs and getting them housed.

So right now, as we're working with them, we're still supporting them just because the media is not there and it's not out there, we're still working with them.

It doesn't stop once the fires out.

It doesn't stop for these families, either you, Jose or Peter.

Do you have any advice for folks who then have to navigate the insurance of all this?

Is there any assistance out there for folks to, you know, some advice on how to navigate the aftermath of a fire?

So the good news on a fire scene is when we find out that the family has renters insurance or homeowner's insurance, because as difficult as that challenge can be, it's a whole lot better than the situation for the families who don't have coverage.

So that's one of the things that we advocate for.

And we try to do that in the preparedness and safety training, because it really isn't a helpful conversation to tell somebody after the fire that you would have been better if you had insurance, but it's it's really being patient.

It's reaching out.

We find frequently that through North Bend Legal Aid, a lot of the other social service providers, Catholic Charities, can help families navigate.

We are primarily focused on the first 24 to 72 hours to make sure that family has shelter, food, clothing.

But then we partner with United Way and numerous other agencies to start to address those second and third level needs.

Our caseworkers are trained to support those families, sometimes for as long as six months.

And a part of that is kind of talking them through the challenge of, well, you know, my I don't understand what my insurance adjuster gave me, I don't understand.

So the first thing we tell people is don't sign anything unless you fully you feel you fully understand it.

But that we're not a law firm, we're not a legal service, but it's really just creating a mindset for people to be aware and to be thoughtful and to take the time as difficult as it can be to make sure that you understand what's happening.

Absolutely.

And I know Easton recently had a huge fire as well this year.

And so my question for the two of you, and maybe it's not a question, maybe it's more of explaining what goes into the efforts to get those large fires out.

Right.

It's not just Easton going out to fight this fire.

It's not just Allentown.

Allentown now is moving to support this fire and put it out.

Other teams are moving in place.

What does that look like?

What does that planning look like when you're trying to battle these big fires?

And are there challenges there?

There's always challenges when it comes to the larger fires in Northampton County, a lot of our departments have built out what we call box alarms.

For Easton specifically, our first alarm is our own duty personnel.

Our second alarm then goes to the mutual aid and we call it our community partners Forks Township, Palmer, Williams, Wilson, and then third alarm and above.

It's already built into the cat.

So whoever the incident commander is request I want my third alarm.

The apparatus are coming with the personnel.

Other issues that are face time delays because as a career department, we're out the door relatively quick.

When you rely on mutual aid from the volunteer departments.

And believe me, I'm not knocking the volunteer fire department when I say this.

They need to respond from wherever they're at to their station, get enough people on the apparatus, and then respond.

There could be time delays that are critical.

Ten 15 minutes?

Sure.

Are you seeing the same thing in Allentown?

We are, for example, the Front Street fire that Allentown experienced back in July.

We had approximately 200 firefighters responded to the scene.

There was multiple multiple companies from our mutual aid partners, and we faced the same challenges as well.

The volunteers do a fantastic job, but by nature of their job, there is a time delay it takes them to get to the station.

So these are all box assignments.

Allentown works much similar to Easton, so we build out scalable assignments so that 200 firefighters got us to approximately the sixth alarm assignment.

So you can you can keep going if resources allow.

But after a while, once you go outside of your city, once you go further and further into the into the counties, the service becomes a little less guaranteed just by virtue of the volunteer service.

This sounds like it has to be a very choreographed dance to make sure we are covered and safe in our homes when our firefighters are responding to a big events elsewhere.

I want to open up this conversation to our audience members to ask some questions.

Megan, you have some questions.

From what I understand from our viewers at home.

That's right.

So we from Chelsea, from Easton is asking, what's something about your experience as a firefighter that you wish our community understood better?

Is is there any is there something that you wish the folks, the civilians knew more about, more about your line of work?

What should they understand to help understand the needs and that you need in this day and age to keep your men, men and women safe and to keep the community safe?

Yeah.

So in the in the fire service, it can be very taxing physically and mentally.

I can share an experience.

A Christmas morning some years ago will have the lasting effect that my Christmases will never be the same.

We had a young child who did not get what he wanted for Christmas and ended up committing suicide.

I had three young children at home at the time.

You'll never forget that incident.

So and these memories build up over time.

So mental health for firefighters is critical.

The physical health for firefighters is also critical.

So if you see us out in the community, don't hesitate to come up and talk to us.

Have a show at the apparatus, stop by the stations.

We are really friendly.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Don't let the uniform scare you off.

Right.

Chief Steed, anything to add there?

Is there anything that you would like the folks in your community to know about this line of work?

Besides that, it's dangerous.

It is extremely dangerous.

I would also say the families, they could never possibly get enough respect and enough enough accolades.

It's very difficult to be a supportive member that has our back, so to speak, when we're going to work.

It's often said that it's more difficult for the wives and the spouses than it is for us, because we're focused on the task at hand.

So much like a the station.

Also, at home, we function as a as a cohesive unit.

So it's a very, very strong family tie.

And I would I would highly recommend it to anybody.

Good job.

And Megan, I encourage you to share the microphone with our with our folks, our panelists here up at the front row as well.

To answer that, while you're doing that, you know, Peter, is there anything that you see firsthand that you think that that folks should know about these men and women that you're working, you know, to support day in and day out?

I'm personally and I've been working now with the Red cross for 13 years.

I'd never been on fire scenes before that in my life.

I am in awe of the dedication.

Showing up at 1:00 in the morning down in Front Street with a team of volunteers, and these guys are just working and they're all there for us, and we just need to remember every day and be thankful and appreciate that there are people who are willing to do that.

You said it earlier, the people that will run towards the things that we're all being trained to run away from and just be mindful and appreciative in any single, any small way that you can say thank you, extend your gratitude, you know, please do that.

Deputy chief from East Allen.

Ray, would you like to to add to that, is there something you'd like to say about being a volunteer?

You know, a different side of the coin, being a volunteer.

What should people know about that?

Nothing really changes from what you heard up there from the panel in front of us.

For us.

I mean, a fire in the city of Allentown, city of Easton, East town Township.

It's no different.

We can face the same thing.

So mentally we can face those same problems.

You know, obviously we're plagued with looking at the response factor on those types of situations because we're behind the the eight ball.

You know we're already delayed.

So minutes matter.

So getting there could escalated take you to a whole different level of firefighting or rescue needs that become more challenging.

Absolutely.

Chief little yeah I think one takeaway is right.

It's a noble calling for any public servant, career or volunteer making an impact on their community, right?

And wanting to help save lives, make our communities safer.

Absolutely.

And we have Llewelyn, as you're over there in the audience.

We lost you over there.

First off, I want to say it is the best job in the world, and to go out and help your community is is something that is just I hit the lottery, you know, we all did.

You know another thing, you know, that Chief Hennings brought up is the mental health and well-being of our of our firefighters.

And, you know, there's there's a lot of experiences that I've had that many of us have had that we can't take away.

And we bring those home and we live with them every day.

You know, I'm a I'm glad.

I'm happy to say that I am a I'm a survivor.

You know, I, I had some issues with certain calls and I dealt with some mental issues and I sought help, and I was glad that it was out there for me.

And the thing is, is that we all need to keep track of each other, you know, we know each other.

We live in a firehouse together.

We know when someone's down, it's okay to seek help.

It's okay to talk to people.

The bravado and the ego.

A lot of times that's that's a cover.

A lot of us are teddy bears and very loving people.

Thank you for sharing that.

Megan, there's another question.

There's one more question from Chelsea and Easton, again asking what part of being in the fire service has been most meaningful to you personally?

I know you just touched on that.

Does anyone want to add to that?

Yeah, it's a very rewarding career.

You're helping your community, you show up to work every day.

It's a new challenge every day.

You don't know what you're going to respond to.

The one thing that I will say we all keep this in the back of our mind is this is one of those vocations that you don't necessarily know you're going to go home from.

Let that sink in.

That's a good point to make.

And your family doesn't know if you're coming home, from which I know that's correct, but a very a very rewarding career.

Like I said, you're helping out the community.

There's that sense of pride for knowing that you're out there and you're helping the community.

Sure, sure.

And I'm going to ask you gentlemen here on stage, and if our folks in the audience want to chime in to if current staffing and funding trends hold realistically, what's what's it look like that when we come to a time when we're really running into an issue, when it comes to staffing and folks who are not trained to protect our communities, what are we looking at here?

It's going to be a disaster.

So at some point the wheels are going to come off the bus.

Right now we see this issue across the Commonwealth.

On the EMS side, there's burnout.

There's a lack of people to step up to want to do these jobs.

And eventually it's going to come around to the fireside.

As you see, the volunteer side is dwindling.

It's getting harder and harder to get people to take the career side doing the testing.

And that's based off of, you know, items that could be in a collective bargaining agreement with the residency, the economy, where people have to live, where they can commute to.

It's it's a very broad umbrella.

Sure.

We're going to continue this community conversation over on our YouTube page.

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Firefighters have always answered the call, but the way they protect our communities is changing.

The future of fire service will depend on having enough people willing to serve the resources to train and equip them, and communities willing to invest in the people who protect us.

If you'd like to learn more.

Make sure you log on to Lehigh Valley Public media.com.

Thank you so much for joining us for this community conversation.

Sounding the alarm.