At one time, the fire departments in St. Tammany were all manned by volunteers, servants willing to run into a burning building to save a life without asking for a paycheck in return.

Many of the parish’s rural stations are still manned primarily with volunteers, but now they all have some paid firefighters helping to pick up the workload.

Fire District 6 on Lee Road was the last department to lose its all-volunteer status.

Shown is Fire District 6 in Lee Road, which up until now was manned by a full volunteer staff, but has hired its first paid firefighter. (Staff Photo by Debbie Glover)

Starting Feb. 1, District 6 has three paid part-time firefighters.

Carol Pauche, Michael Accardo and James Bailey are all full-time firefighters with District 9 in Bush, but they are also now working shifts for District 6.

The department has three stations, and now that there are actual firefighters on the payroll, one station will be manned during the day, everyday.

Chief Harold Dutsch, who is a volunteer himself, said the three firefighters rotate shifts, working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every third day.

Dutsch said this helps to guarantee a firefighter is available during the daytime hours when many of the volunteers are at their regular jobs.

Dutsch said finally having some employees to man the stations helps with getting some of the routine maintenance work done around the stations.

He said when there are only volunteers, “little things get neglected.”

The firefighter salaries are being paid for out of the millage already assessed in the district.

Dutsch said the district has been saving up for a fourth stations but decided the money could be better spent to hire on paid firefighters.

John O’Neil, director of fire services for the parish, said many of the districts are not relying so much on volunteers as many lost a number of their volunteers after Hurricane Katrina, either do to them moving out of the district or because they were forced to seek out paid employment. Additionally, he said, the state is requiring volunteer firefighters to attend more training, which has discouraged some.

Dutsch said pre-Katrina he had more than 50 volunteers, and now he only has 40, which is still a good number. However, he said, his primary reason for bringing on the paid firefighters at the time is because the department is financially able to do so.

“We don’t have much debt. All of our buildings are paid for,” he said. “We are in pretty good financial shape.”

He hopes to eventually have paid firefighters manning stations around the clock.