As the Mason Fire Department’s first full-time fire chief, Anthony Burns intends to facilitate change during a difficult time for volunteer fire departments.

“The volunteer fire service is dying across the country. It’s been a national problem since I started in 1994,” said Burns. “So we all need to transition to something different, which is what we are working to do here in Mason.”

Burns began his career as a firefighter and EMT in his home state of New York, in the town of Scriba. He served as a lieutenant, along with being involved in the administrative facet of the department as corporate president. Burns then spent 17 years in Georgia, putting himself through college to obtain a bachelor’s degree in public administration. He took his degree to the town of Walthourville, Ga., where he was chief for seven years before coming to Mason in 2021, first as assistant chief before taking over from retiring Fire Chief Flip Phalon at the end of the year.

After becoming chief in early 2021, Phalon requested the town budget include a full-time position in the department, which Town Meeting approved that March. Originally, the full-time position was for an assistant chief, with the plan being that when Phalon retired, the assistant chief would become fire chief and that position would become the full-time role. 

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), of the 212 registered departments in New Hampshire, 83.9% were either registered as volunteer or mostly volunteer. However, the landscape of the tradition of volunteer firefighting is changing, with the cost of goods rising in recent years. 

“My personal opinion is people can't afford to volunteer their time with the cost of everything,” said Burns. “Folks who have to work two or three jobs just to sustain themselves and their families, as much as they would love to volunteer and do this, it just requires too much.”

According to Burns, volunteer firefighting requires hundreds of hours of initial training, taking approximately eight months. The job would also require two nights weekly of work, as well as occasional weekend work. Since transitioning into the role of chief, Burns has shifted all Mason firefighters to an hourly wage paid monthly. 

Burns has also made an effort to aggressively pursue grants to make improvements to the department. The Mason fire command vehicle, a new Ford Expedition, was purchased with grant money acquired by the department. This mentality is evident in Burns’ five-year plan.

“We're really focusing heavily on the training and development of the organization itself, which starts with the staff. They are the organization. They were here before I came here, so they are the organization,” said Burns. “So we're replacing equipment. We're going after grants. We are modernizing the department, replacing some of the older ways of thinking and doing things with more modern ways to accompany our neighbors around us, so we can better work interoperably together.”

Burns will also be focusing on developing his firefighters into officer roles as he works to implement his vision for the department. Despite his reservations about the future of volunteer firefighting, Burns recognizes that it will rely on balance and cooperation. 

“I think that probably the world we’ll live in for a while is a combination where we do have some folks volunteering their time,” said Burns. “But the heavy lifting will be done by folks that are here on base.”