Mike Cederholm, fire chief for the Frankfort Fire Department, shows seniors how to use the fire hose as part of life skills class. Cederholm is hoping to get students interested in joining the fire service to help fill vacancies left by declining volunteerism. 

BENZIE COUNTY — Many volunteer organizations in Benzie County have been seeing a decline in members over the years, and that includes the county’s volunteer fire departments.

Recently, the City of Frankfort hired Mike Cederholm as the first full-time fire chief for the Frankfort Fire Department.

Josh Mills, superintendent for the city of Frankfort, said one of the big reasons a full-time chief was brought on was to try to combat the decline in volunteers and coordinate the resources the Frankfort station already had.

“We could use about five or six more firefighters trained as medical first responders as well,” Cederholm said. “The biggest thing is our medical calls have skyrocketed.”

Cederholm said there were 55 medical calls in March, and only eight fire runs. In April, there were 60 medical calls.

“The problem is you wind up with more people doing medical calls for falls, slips and trips,” he said. “You wind up with more people doing medical calls but you still have to have the fire training and be ready for that, as well.”

The Frankfort station is a volunteer station, but it has the budget to have volunteers work up to 30 hours per week, for a total of 146 hours between volunteers each week. Even then, Cederholm said staffing weekends is always tough.

Other stations have volunteers that are only paid per call.

“We don’t have any paid full-time employees,” said Dayton Pfost, fire chief for the Inland Township Fire Department. “They get paid if they go on a call. Other than that, the station is not staffed. I have available hours for people to be at the station, but they’re hard to fill.”

Pfost said there are about 17 volunteers with the Inland Township Fire Department, but he’d like to see about 20 to 25. Pfost is not a full-time staff member.

Steve Adams, fire chief for the Benzonia Township Fire Department, said his station has about 19 volunteer firefighters — a number he called “average.”

“We were fortunate enough within the past several years to take on about six people, which is kind of unheard of,” he said. “Most of them are children of people who were already in the department who got old enough to serve and are staying in the area.”

Adams said the station has about 19 people and that he is the only full-time employee.

While Adams said the staffing is adequate, as with Frankfort, responding to medical calls is a big element of what his team does.

“We do a lot of medical calls over fire calls, and it comes down to availability,” he said. “A lot of time the people are at work during the day. They can’t always get away. That’s where we’re short. People can get away for a big fire call, but it is harder when it is a medical call. It depends on the employer.”

Adams said there are a number of hurdles keeping people from volunteering at rural fire stations.

“As a whole, society is busier in nature,” he said. “People don’t have the time to commit to the levels of commitment needed for training. Then there’s a response to call. Life has gotten so busy, the time for volunteerism isn’t there.”

Cederholm, who also is a certified firefighter training instructor and an instructor for the National Incident Management System, said it takes about 240 hours of training to get certified. He said it takes 300 hours of training to become a medical first responder, as well.

Adams said the state recently required firefighters to have some medical first responder training as well. 

Both Cederholm and Adams said there is money available to pay for the costs of training through state and federal programs, but paying for the time a volunteer puts into training is up to individual fire departments.

“A lot of fire departments can’t afford to pay volunteers for the time they spend in training,” Adams said. “We give a stipend once they get certified to help offset the cost, but the initial cost of time and money traveling is a hard pill for volunteers to swallow.”  

Cederholm said the Frankfort Fire Department also pays a stipend to help cover the travel costs involved in training.

Now facing a shortage of volunteers, Cederholm is looking to future generations to fill the gap. He is currently working with Jaime Smith, life studies instructor at Frankfort High School, to put on programs for eighth graders and seniors that showcase firefighting science and the tools of the trade.

“We’re working with eighth graders because it is when they start forming thoughts about what they want to do,” Cederholm said. “We can introduce them to fire and EMS services as an opportunity to get involved and interested in something they can do in their own community. We can show them that fire service has evolved so rapidly that it is no longer just putting out fires.”

“It is everything from injury prevention to community risk prevention to ice water rescue to wildland rescue and community outreach,” he said. “Fire inspection, code enforcement and even aviation inspections at the local airport.”

Cederholm has put on several demonstrations for the senior life skills class. Seniors have already been able to use the fire hose, and Cederholm has fire extinguisher training planned for the seniors and eighth grade during a future class.

“I think the most alarming thing is that departments are having to close,” he said. “This will probably happen more and more unless people are willing to volunteer and look at firefighting and EMS as a career option. If you enjoy helping people and you want to be there for somebody when they have their worst day, this would be the job for you.”

I grew up in Frankfort enjoying the lakes and streams of the Benzie County area. I started school at Northwestern Michigan College and finished at Central Michigan University. I enjoy walking, fishing and reading.