Fire departments having trouble finding volunteers

Im not sure if its the same way everywhere but its seems to be that the number of people willing to volunteer has dropped dramaticly. We have had trouble finding people willing to serve their community. Ive kinda found that the whole attitude towards being a fireman has changed, people just dont care anymore they would rather let someone elso do it. I dont have a problem with this being a thankless job but it seems now that people want some kind of special perk or something. Is anyone else facing the same issues and if you are what have you done to counter act them.

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on February 5, 2010 at 12:00pm

Jack, either way, but I like your thinking! Some communities are going to have to go combination or fully paid eventually. Some communities are sitting on a surplus of money, but their saving it for their own agendas.

Those shinny big trucks wont be able to run on their own. I'm sure the average response times are getting uglier!

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Cowan on February 5, 2010 at 12:06pm

Jessie,
Your Idea actually works Very Well. We have a "FireFest" every year and show our tax payers all the Equipment and Gear, and a Few Live Fire Demonstrations. Always lots of Activites for the Kids. Wonderful way to get your Message out. Try Hitting the County Fair also.
Good Luck!!

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Permalink Reply by Todd on February 5, 2010 at 2:22pm

We actually have the opposite situation. More volunteers on roster now than at any time in the past 15 years, and two more to interview tomorrow. Back in November during our officer elections we had to add a LT position and split into companies to bring the span of control down.

What are we doing? Nothing really. The local school district's career center has a firefighter program for high school aged kids and we picked up three from there. Had a number of folks who were firefighters elsewhere move into our area and join up. Other than that we haven't done anything any different than what we have always done.