The Plight of Firefighting: Some Departments are Bucking the Trend! (Could Use Additional Support)

To the Rescue

by Norman Rockwell 1931

The Saturday Evening Post

Firefighting is tough business and it doesn't pay well so it is more of a labor of love on behalf of communities. Much of the country relies on volunteer firefighting and without them we really wouldn't have any way of handling the national increase in fire incidents. 

You can read NOAA's 'Wildfire climate connection' to gain some knowledge of how climate change and dry material are impacting the size and frequencies of fire. (NOAA is a great department. I once contacted them for a ship we were diving that didn't have any name. It wasn't listed so I guess I am the first to officially report it. Is that technically a shipwreck discovery? I mean, there were a number of local divers but no one remembers who first found it but it definitely wasn't me. You can actually see it on Google Maps. I don't like to share its exact location because people go and strip them and the history is lost.)

This a fabulous article that goes beyond the basics. It discusses how some firefighters are on food stamps, have limited opportunities and often struggle with basic things. Volunteers do it for free without any support. They do it because they care about helping. 

We are also struggling to recruit new firefighters like we are in law enforcement and the military. New approaches will need to come forward to deal with these issues. 

The national emergency no one’s talking about: Firefighters are quitting in droves. Here’s why.

Anyway, we need to think about how to attract our youth to these important occupations. They have concerns over climate and they have concerns over democracy and opportunities so those are underlining motivational things we can tap into. If we adjust the PR and the nature of the work to be more interesting, rewarding, and have living wages then we can perhaps fix some issues (Its not all about the money, these are rewarding careers overall.)

There are some departments that are doing it right and I have seen them grow and blossom. This is what I have observed from those growing departments (I pay attention but I'm not the authority on fire departments but do have some understanding of total organizations.). 

1.) They do a lot of training and do so with other departments. 

2.) Positive, polite, and create a sense of community. 

3.) Members are devoted to their departments and its mission. 

4.) Actively seek out new recruits. 

5.) Fundraising consistently (They need more support but because they are not a large department I'm not sure they are getting all the opportunities they could. We need more effort on funding and developing that which could work well.)

6.) Training as team building.

7.) Managed as a democratic group of interested members with voting.

8.) Seek to help the community above all else. 

What is Learned: Firefighting recruitment relies much on the community and retention is related to a sense of community. Community seems to be a big part of success.

I see these departments as opportunities for community stakeholders to send potential recruits, local colleges to partner with, and general focus on the development of the best firefighting practices we can create. That takes equipment, funding, and effort. Mostly it takes commitment to seeing what works and emulating that in other places. If we want to solve problems like this, we are going to have to look at what works and what doesn't.