Petersburg Pilot -

The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department released its year end report last week, which shed light on the true value of community volunteers.

According to the report submitted by Fire/EMS/SAR Director Aaron Hankins, having a volunteer-based fire department saves the borough between an estimated $759,200 and $1,138,800 in personnel costs per year when compared to a full-time career fire department.

The estimation is based on having 8-12 employees staffing the local fire department-enough to provide 24/7 coverage-and the average firefighter working 2,920 hours annually according to fireenginee...