AIKEN --- Silver Bluff firefighter Wayne Drown has been battling fires for about 35 years, primarily as a volunteer.

The former fire chief says all volunteer fire departments face challenges of funding, recruiting and retaining volunteers.

In Aiken County, several volunteer fire departments are now addressing the issue of funding, with proposed increases in fire fees for Bath, Clearwater, Couchton, New Ellenton, Silver Bluff and Windsor.

Those increases -- some more than 190 percent more a year depending on property values -- would help the departments pay for such things as equipment upgrades, rising fuel costs and utilities.

Already, the Aiken County Council has approved on second reading an ordinance to increase the fees, and the council will have a third and final reading at its next meeting in September.

Clearwater Assistant Fire Chief Chris Rockwell said one of the biggest problems in recruiting and retaining volunteers can be the required training.

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, volunteers are required to complete more than 100 hours of basic firefighting classes before being allowed to fight fires.

Departments that provide emergency medical care, such as the Clearwater Fire Department, are required to have their volunteers certify as emergency medical first responders, which is an additional 75-120 hours of training. And federal law mandates that firefighters receive annual hazardous material training, which brings an additional 10 to 25 hours.

"It's hard to have a full-time job, family and go to these classes that are required," Mr. Rockwell said.

Because of increased training requirements, volunteers are no longer allowed to substitute on-the-job training for formal training and certification.

"It takes a special person who is willing and can do the work of a firefighter," Mr. Drown said.

The 22 volunteers at the Silver Bluff Volunteer Fire Department, like the firefighters at the other 21 departments in Aiken County, have to juggle full-time jobs and family commitments with the demands of training and responding to fire calls.

"It's really community service they're doing," Mr. Drown said.

The Martinez-Columbia Fire Department in Columbia County used to be all volunteer, and staff availability was always a challenge, said Assistant Fire Chief Jim Champion, a 40-year veteran of both paid and volunteer departments.

With volunteer departments, "during the day, it's difficult to get the amount of people at a fire that you would normally need," he said.

But for the past few years, the department has been a combination department with 142 paid firefighters and 50-70 volunteers.

"At a fire scene, you won't know one from the other," Mr. Champion said. "We have some who are career firemen at other departments and volunteer with us just because they love it."

Like volunteer firefighters in Aiken County, Martinez-Columbia volunteers have to meet the same requirements as a career firefighter.

"Every volunteer fire department is handicapped from a manpower standpoint during the daytime hours, which puts us in a position to rely on neighboring fire departments," said Clearwater Fire Chief Mike Toole, who oversees 19 volunteers.

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, the majority of fire departments across the country are volunteer, and of the more than 1.1 million firefighters nationwide, 72 percent are volunteers.

The volunteer fire departments throughout Aiken County are cost-savers for the county and municipalities, Chief Toole said.

If volunteer firefighters nationwide were replaced with paid personnel, the cost to taxpayers would be $37.2 billion annually, according to a study conducted by the Public Safety and Environmental Protection Institute.

Reach Michelle Guffey at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or michelle.guffey@augustachronicle.com.