House Majority Leader Mike Sanders, R-Kingfisher, said close to 500 new volunteer firefighters have joined rural fire departments four years after he ran legislation that eliminated the age limit for new volunteers.  He expects to see an even greater increase with the passage of another law, too.

House Bill 2005, authored by Sanders, took effect Nov. 1, 2015. The law eliminated the 45-year-old age limit for new firefighters by giving them the ability to join a department without the requirement that they be added to the state’s pension plan.

This year, Sanders saw his House Bill 2051 passed and signed into law. The measure, which became effective today, allows retired firefighters who are already part of the state’s pension program to return to service in volunteer fire departments without it affecting their current retirement benefit and without it counting as an accrued retirement benefit against the state’s pension plan.

Sanders said about 85 percent of the firefighters in Oklahoma are volunteers, and 95 percent of the state’s fire departments are certified with the Rural Fire Defense Program, meaning they serve rural populations.

State law, however, previously prohibited willing volunteers over the age of 45 from becoming firefighters because the state’s pension and retirement plan simply could not afford them.