United States (North Carolina) - Wake County could extinguish four volunteer fire stations that have battled blazes in the county for decades. A recent evaluation of the fire system found that the county could close the Falls Volunteer Fire Department on Falls of Neuse Road, the Western Wake department near the N.C. State fairgrounds and two others to save money and make better use of equipment by contracting more services to nearby municipal fire departments.

Bay Leaf and New Hope fire stations in North Raleigh are the other two facing closure.

County officials say population growth and rising departmental operating costs sparked the evaluation. The county won't discontinue fire stations in areas where municipal stations can't respond within the county's required response time, which is four firefighters arriving on the scene within nine minutes for 90 percent of calls.

"We would love to put a fire station between every house in the county so everyone gets the same response time, but that's not practical or affordable," said Wake County Fire Marshal Ray Echevarria. "We're trying to determine what is most efficient."

The potential closings have caused backlash among some volunteer fire departments.

Wake's 12 municipalities have annexed more than 74 square miles in the last decade. As the towns grow, they add fire stations, and county coverage areas need to be re-evaluated, Echevarria said.

Increasingly rigorous training standards, medical response requirements, growth, and time commitments have decreased the number of volunteer firefighters and forced traditional volunteer stations to hire a core of paid staff.

None of Wake's 20 departments is composed only of volunteers. A Rolesville station was the last to start hiring staff in 2000. Countywide, the number of volunteers has dipped by 100 in the last decade.

"The demand changes over time," Echevarria said. "We're making sure our resources are meeting those changing demands. It is definitely getting increasingly difficult for departments to recruit and maintain volunteers."

But Falls firefighters and some nearby residents argue that removing the department would do a disservice to the surrounding community, which the station has served since 1970.

"It's just a bad idea," said Paul Colucci, who has lived in the Bedford at Falls River subdivision for three years. "It's critical. And most people here are upset."

Residents of Bedford at Falls River collected donations for the fire department two weeks ago at a neighborhood fall festival.

Posted on the fire department's Web site is a letter urging residents to petition Wake's commissioners.

According to the Web site, county "politicians only care about the bottom line and not always what is in the community's best interest. Falls Fire Department currently operates with the lowest budget compared to other volunteer fire departments in Wake County."

Echevarria says annual operating costs for the county's 20 fire departments have increased from about $7million to about $20 million in the last decade. Those costs include only utilities, salaries and small equipment -- not the additional expense of trucks and other heavy machinery. A single tanker truck costs about $350,000.

To cut costs, the county closed a western Wake station in 2007 and contracted the station's service area to Cary fire stations.

David Cates, chief of the Western Wake department, said closing that station made sense because it was so close to Cary. But closing the remaining Western Wake station would do a disservice to the area near the fairgrounds and Carter Finley Stadium on the outskirts of Raleigh, he said. The department has served Western Wake for about 50 years.

Echevarria said full-time staff and resources from stations that close would be transferred to other departments.

But the 50 staff members at the Falls Department are only volunteers and part-time staff.

"We're looking at the data, too, and trying to fight this," Falls Chief Chris Wilson said.

Staff from Falls and the Bay Leak department soon will petition Wake's Fire Commission. David Cates, chief of the Western Wake department, said his department, too, will fight closure.

"There will certainly be a more concerted fight to keep the doors of these stations open," he said.

Written by The News and Observer