When mechanical issues on a 1985 tanker truck became too severe to repair, the Stickleyville Volunteer Fire Department had to take it out of service. This left the department unable to carry large loads of water through Lee County’s mountainous terrain, said Chief Bryan Sage.
Buying a new tanker truck was out of the question. This equipment can cost between $600,000 and $1.2 million, and the Stickleyville department’s annual budget is only $17,000, Sage said.
Localities bear most of the financial burden for providing fire and EMS services in Virginia.
Of the $6.2 billion spent on fire and EMS in Virginia between 2021 and 2023, only about 1.7% came from the state. Another 1.1% came from federal sources, but localities paid for the remaining 97%, according to a 2024 report from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Public Policy.
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Volunteer fire departments across our region are the first line of defense during emergencies for many communities, but they continue to grapple with declining volunteerism, inadequate resources and funding, and the changing nature of their work.
Cardinal News is amplifying potential solutions to these problems in a monthslong project; check out our project page here to follow along.
Securing more state funding has proven to be difficult, said Jeremy Bennett, director of intergovernmental affairs at the Virginia Association of Counties — no increases have been made to the state funding rate for the Fire Programs Fund since 1995. There are many needs in rural Virginia that compete for limited state investment, ranging from the fire service to healthcare systems to workforce development programs and job creation initiatives.
And in the U.S., funding fire departments has historically been a local responsibility, he said. That might explain the “hesitance by some in the legislature to take on an additional responsibility on their end,” Bennett said.
“The state government, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t give any money at all to the fire service,” Sage said. “They depend on localities to fund that service to the public. And if you’re in Fairfax or Loudoun or Prince William, and you have a large tax base, that works out fine. But if you’re in Lee, Scott, Wise, Dickenson, Buchanan, it’s a real struggle.”
With the help of the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, the Stickleyville department was able to get a used tanker truck at no cost.
The association launched the Rural Apparatus Support Program about two years ago, connecting departments that have surplus equipment with departments that can’t afford to buy new.
“These are not departments that can ‘just fundraise more’ or wait for state support,” the organization’s website states. “They are doing all they can often with volunteer personnel and limited infrastructure to protect their neighbors. A donated ambulance or engine could mean the difference between a delayed response and a life saved.”
Most of the departments with surplus equipment are along the Interstate 95 corridor in Virginia, and most that need donations are in Southwest Virginia, said Chris Eudailey, executive director of the association.
The surplus equipment isn’t brand new, but it’s still in working condition and often a big improvement from existing equipment at rural fire departments.
The tanker truck that came to Stickleyville was donated by King George County. It’s about 20 years old, but after a few minor repairs, it was immediately put into service, Sage said.
“We would have never been able to acquire this truck otherwise,” he said.
Two years into the surplus equipment program, 14 departments have been helped
The Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, which began in 1930, is a nonprofit that works to advance and support fire and emergency services. It provides training, lobbies for legislation, awards educational scholarships and supports family members of firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
An ongoing need for equipment at rural fire departments with smaller budgets prompted the launch of the Rural Apparatus Support Program.
“We wanted to encourage departments that are getting rid of equipment or apparatus with some life expectancy left, to send it to smaller localities that can’t afford to purchase it,” he said.
Basically, all it takes for this program to work is a department willing to donate equipment and a department that can accept it, Eudailey said.
The fire chiefs association gets information from departments about what they need and coordinates with another department that can provide it.
“We provide monthly updates to our members to remind them about what the outstanding needs are,” Eudailey said. “As we get notifications that someone’s getting rid of something, we make the connection. Then we kind of step back and let the two departments handle the transition.”
Sage said it was as simple as writing a letter to the association about Stickleyville’s need for a tanker truck. It only took about 90 days for a donation to come through from King George.
Before this donation about a year ago, and a used truck purchased with a grant about two years before that, the newest truck at the department was a 1986 model, Sage said.
“We have fire hydrants in the county, but there’s a lot of area that we have to cover with no fire hydrants, so it’s a big thing for us to have this water capacity to carry water to a fire,” he said. “[The tanker truck] has been out on several calls. I think the truck has been out on three structure fires since we received it, and it’s helpful in other capacities as well. It’s a part of our regular fleet.”
Roger Carter, chief of the Duffield Volunteer Fire Department in Scott County, also said the process to apply for a donation was easy.
“We had a motor that blew up in our ambulance that we couldn’t afford to replace, and we had an engine that we needed to replace,” Carter said. “We wrote a letter, and they matched our need with what was available and we ended up getting an ambulance from Purcellville and an engine from Manassas.”
On top of aiding the actual firefighting work at the department, the donation has given volunteers peace of mind, Carter said.
“Our newest engine before this was from 2001, and our oldest is from 1989, so it’s in pretty bad shape,” he said. “Now we don’t have to worry about constantly having problems with older equipment. We can’t afford brand new things, but this keeps us in service.”
Since the program began, 14 fire departments have received donations, including ambulances, fire engines, a brush truck and command vehicles, Eudailey said.
He said he’s working to keep spreading the word about the program. The more departments that become involved, the greater the impact, because there’s a bigger variety of equipment available, he said.
The Virginia Fire Chiefs Association has about 1,200 members statewide. These members are individuals in emergency services, both paid and volunteer, as well as affiliate organizations and corporations, not entire fire departments.
The organization also has a board of directors, which is made up of seven divisions across the state.
“Between us and the regional outreach that the division directors do, I think we have a good chance to try to touch everybody,” Eudailey said.
Both parties have to be on board
The program relies on two willing parties: the donor and the recipient.
While recipients are always willing to participate, the sticking point can come from departments in a position to donate, Eudailey said.
“Some elected officials in some cases might want to see that equipment be sold,” he said. “In some cases they’re not real keen on having it donated when they can make maybe $100,000 or more to be reinvested in the cost of a new apparatus.”
Equipment costs for fire and EMS are rising dramatically, he said, which may make some localities less willing to donate.
“I’ve been in the fire business since 1977, when I was a volunteer, and a new engine cost maybe $100,000, maybe $125,000,” Eudailey said. “Today, you’re talking a million dollars, and in some cases it takes three to five years to get it once you order it.”
But Sage said selling equipment makes “pennies on the dollar,” and he believes it’s put to better use by being donated.
And at the end of the day, the donation program doesn’t fix the problem of minimal state funding for fire and emergency services, Sage said.
Between 2020 and 2023 in Virginia, the average cost of a fire engine increased by 109% while state funding only increased by 6.67%, according to a 2023 report to the General Assembly by a workgroup of various state agencies and fire service stakeholders.
“We’ve got to start looking at the funding mechanism at a state level, because localities just don’t have the tax base to be able to support it,” he said. “Capital expenditures are pretty much out of the question if you don’t get a grant or donation or some other sort of help.”
In the meantime, Sage said the donation program is making a meaningful difference for rural fire departments.
“It was a tremendous boost for us,” he said. “Funding is a struggle, but we do with what we’ve got and we’re proud of that.”
Eudailey encouraged fire departments in need of donations to apply online.
“We’ve still got another eight to 10 outstanding needs that haven’t been met yet,” Eudailey said. “If there are any departments out there that have serviceable things that still have some life expectancy in them, we want them to reach out.”
