A ‘perfect storm’ for fire and EMS departments: Costs, calls increase while personnel drops, funding remains stagnant

Walt Bailey, a volunteer fire department chief in Phenix, fielded more than 100 calls in one day between 4 a.m. and 2 p.m. during a recent ice storm that swept across the Southwest and Southside regions. 

Ice built up on trees in the area, causing branches to become so heavy they split off from the trunk. That led to downed power lines or road blockages as commuters tried to get to work that morning. 

“It’s difficult, we have old equipment, meaning older power saws with dull blades on them. We can get by with that, but it’s the personnel side,” he said. 

That day, there were only two people in the Phenix Volunteer Fire Department to respond to calls, one of whom was Bailey. He also works on the emergency medical service rescue squad in Charlotte County.

“We’ve been steadily at it since 4 o’clock this morning,” he said, at around 2 p.m. that day. “Wind the clock back five years, there was probably five or six people, wind the clock back 20 years, we may have had 15 people.”

The number of fire and emergency service personnel, particularly in volunteer departments, has been on a steady decline over the last two decades. The volume of calls for emergency services has increased in recent years, however. 

Bailey noted that people have less time to volunteer these days — with inflation driving up the cost of living, fewer people are seeking out work that doesn’t pay. He also noted that the required training and equipment for new volunteers has also become cost prohibitive when trying to grow the workforce in volunteer departments. 

The workforce decline, coupled with an increase in calls, has led to prolonged response times for people during a medical emergency in rural parts of the state. Bailey has called it a perfect storm that could lead volunteer departments to close in areas where their services are most needed. 

“The burden that’s being put on the declining number of volunteers is going up exponentially,” he said. “We just simply don’t have the money.”

A lack of money and old equipment 

Eric Young, county administrator in Tazewell County, noted that funding for fire and EMS has been largely left to the localities. 

“A lot of these poor, rural localities struggle with that,” he said. “The state government funds law enforcement officers for us and they help us tremendously with that, but there’s no funding to help us pay for EMTs or paramedics, but our people see that as a government service.”

About 97.15% of the $6.2 billion spent on fire and EMS in Virginia between fiscal years 2021 and 2023 came from local government budgets, according to a 2024 report by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Public Policy. An estimated 1.13% came from federal sources, and 1.72% from the state.

A large portion of revenue in local government comes from property and sales taxes, to pay for things like transportation, public infrastructure, law enforcement, as well as fire and EMS services. So, what does this mean for funding for fire and EMS services in localities that are largely rural, with small, spread out and declining populations? 

Localities among the ten lowest-funded in the state in relation to their population, land area and EMS call volume are concentrated in Southside and Southwest Virginia. Those localities are largely rural and generally experience population declines, as well as a decrease in volunteerism at fire and EMS departments. Those localities include Dickenson, Wise, Russell and Appomattox counties, according to the VCU report. 

Localities that report prolonged call times, in response to medical emergencies, are among the lowest-funded. They include Bath, Lunenburg, Prince Edward, Scott, Smyth and Wise counties, as well as the city of Norton. 

“Even though our population is not real high in some parts of the state, we have interstates and major highway arteries where people have accidents all the time, and you don’t want to be driving through an ambulance desert and then have your accident,” Young said. 

The cost for fire and EMS equipment has increased, due to new available technology and COVID-19 pandemic related inflation, according to a 2023 report put together by a workgroup. A bill, HB 2175, passed by the General Assembly during the 2023 session, required the workgroup to analyze the needs of fire and EMS departments and explore the sustainability of current funding models. 

The report noted that the current method of funding is not sustainable for future growth in Virginia, particularly for volunteer departments, which make up about 70% of fire and EMS services across the state. Calls for service increased by 40% between 2021 and 2023, while staffing has decreased, equipment has aged and funding at the state level has remained stagnant for 20 years.

While state funding has remained stagnant, the cost of equipment has risen, and that has led to older equipment and longer replacement plans. The cost of a standard fire engine has increased 109.48%, for example, between 2020 and 2023. 

In the same year, between spring and fall of 2023, the cost for an automatic external defibrator increased 45%; the cost for an ambulance remount has increased 17%; the price for chest compression devices rose 17%; monitors with 12 lead capability increased 10.6% and power stair chairs increased 40%. 

“I remember when we were buying ambulances for $120,000 a year and I thought that was expensive,” said Douglas Stanley, county administrator for Prince Edward County. 

The most recent price for an ambulance is upwards of $400,000 now, said Trey Pyle, the emergency service coordinator for Prince Edward County. Pyle also works as the chief at Meherrin Volunteer Fire and Rescue. Stanley noted that the cost for a brand new ladder truck is upwards of $2.5 million, and it takes about five years for the locality to receive it. He added that the cost to build and maintain buildings has also increased. 

“Our biggest challenge here, as our aging fleet continues to grow, is where do we find that money for the debt service on a fire truck that’s $1 million?” Pyle said. “We don’t have that funding source to pay for the other necessities, how do we continue to keep our apparatus functional and provide the service?”

Bailey noted that some volunteer departments in Virginia are working with equipment that has aged out of compliance with standards set by the National Fire Protection Association. 

“We’re finding ourselves in a perfect storm, we have been drowning for a long time and we need a lifeline,” Bailey said. 

Hope turns to disappointment as the 2025 session goes by without passing legislation

Bailey said he was hopeful the General Assembly would have seen the need to appropriate money for fire and EMS after the VCU and HB 2175 studies both concluded that financial help is critical to maintain services. 

A bill by Sen. Tammy Mulchi, R-Mecklenburg County, that would have established a state-funded grant program for localities to hire more firefighters and improve fire and EMS services, died in committee this year, however. 

“One of the biggest disappointments I had this session was watching the Senate Finance Committee kill my Senate Bill that would have provided grants to fire and EMS departments for recruiting and retaining firefighters and for replacing worn out fire and emergency equipment or upgrading equipment,” Mulchi said in a statement. 

She noted that three of the 45 fire departments in her district have paid staff and the rest are volunteers, including Bailey’s department. Her bill, SB 984, would have increased funding for volunteer or majority volunteer departments.

The biennial budget included $5 million for fire departments across the state to update their equipment. Mulchi said that $5 million spread out across the state was “just not enough” during her testimony to the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee in late January.

“These firefighters and EMS put their lives on the line for us every day. We salute them, we appreciate them, but we’ve got to start taking better care of them,” she told the committee. The bill was reported and re-referred to the Senate Finance Committee where it was passed by indefinitely. 

That $5 million in the biennial budget is earmarked for departments across the commonwealth to purchase personal protective equipment. Bailey concurred with Mulchi and said that amount of money is “a drop in the bucket” compared to what’s needed. 

“If it costs $6,000 to replace each person’s turnout gear, that’s not going to go very far,” Bailey said.

According to the HB 2175 report, there were about 13,653 volunteer fire and EMS in Virginia in 2023. At a rate of $6,000 per person, it would cost $81.9 million to replace the personal protective equipment for every single one. 

Local funding issues

Fire and EMS services in Bath County are 100% volunteer, said Andy Seabolt, the county’s emergency management coordinator. 

He noted that he’s seen a drop in the volunteer workforce over the last few decades. He attributed that drop to the amount of time people need to commit to training for the volunteer roles while working paying jobs to make ends meet. 

“The economic downturn about 10 years ago really hit us hard,” he said. “Our population is a little over 4,000 in Bath County. That’s a small tax base.”

In Charlotte County, like many rural counties, the population is small and largely made up of farmland and retirees, Bailey said. He also sits on the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors. 

“We don’t really have any industry to speak of,” he added. “So there’s really not a lot of tax base.”

The HB 2175 workgroup came up with recommendations to tackle the issue. One of which would be to increase direct funding from the state to localities for fire and EMS services. The workgroup recommended that the General Assembly create a dedicated funding stream, similar to the State Aid to Localities with Police Departments program, also known as the “599 program,” or the Staffing Standards for Sheriff’s Offices.

By the end of the 2025 General Assembly session, that idea had not been introduced. 

If fire and EMS departments don’t begin to see increased funding, Bailey predicts volunteer departments may start to close. 

“We can’t keep up with it — we have a perfect storm over our heads,” he said. 

Lack of funding, increased costs, decrease in people who can or want to volunteer and becoming increasingly out of compliance with standards are all components that make up that perfect storm. And that storm is leading to increased response times, particularly for people in rural Virginia, during medical emergencies. 

“It’s no question in my mind, because of the delayed responses we’re having around the state, Virginians are losing their lives,” he said. “As response times continue to grow, it’s common sense that people are suffering or potentially dying because of a lack of resources.” 

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