Fire, EMS, and SAR volunteers save borough over $700,000 annually

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 fireengineerin...