I saw this headline yesterday in yet another article about a volunteer fire department and a staffing crisis. The article goes on to mention a severe lack of staffing. When these articles get shared on the Book of Faces, the usual suggestions typically arise. Tax incentives to volunteers. Finding the money to get a paid fire department. Comments from some about the volunteer fire service being an antiquated model whose time has long since passed. And occasionally, you’ll read stories about well-meaning elected officials offer a “solution” that involves waiving certification and/or training requirements for volunteer responders, whether fire or EMS.
I’ll never argue that there is NOT a crisis in volunteer fire and/or EMS staffing. What I will argue is that many of these crises are self-inflicted.
More than a few of these departments operate as social clubs that just happen to have cool trucks and equipment. If you want proof of this, look no further than the “hiring process” at many of these organizations. For many places, the hiring process involves coming to several meetings over a period of time and then being “voted in” by either a committee or the entire membership. For all of the talk about volunteers being “unpaid professionals,” tell me how many other businesses select their team members this way, let alone for an organization that performs often dangerous work. And that dangerous work involves caring for the public, for property, and involves the public’s trust. A popularity contest, especially one with black balls, isn’t the way that we should be selecting public servants and public safety professionals, regardless of a paycheck or lack thereof.
Speaking of hiring. It’s hard to hire people if they don’t know you’re looking for help. It continues to amaze me how few volunteer fire and/or EMS organizations tell people they’re looking for help. And if you think that’s a low number, wait until you see how few put an application on their website or provide any information about how to become a member of the department.
Volunteer departments claim they’re desperate for help. But only if the help is the help they think they need. What does this mean? If you can’t work on their coverage schedule, they don’t need you. If you’re not in district, they don’t need you — even if you’re willing to stay at the station and provide coverage. (And that brings up the whole thing with not being able to get fire apparatus or an ambulance moving until someone goes to the station to retrieve it.) And while the paid fire service has its issues, even they are coming to a place based in reality. Namely, the fire service is a medical provider, even if they’re not transporting patients. Many fire departments have started hiring single role paramedics. And more than a few are providing these single role medics a career track. But the volunteer fire world isn’t there yet. And more than a few are actively avoiding such a mindset. I can point to at least one department that doesn’t require any medical training past CPR/AED for potential fire volunteers, but won’t even entertain the possibility of bringing on someone who’s “just” there for medical calls.
We could talk about retention. We could talk about politics. We could talk about the issues involved with going to a paid or a combination department. But right now, like the chiefs in so many places say, “Something’s got to be done.”
Maybe what needs to be done is to recognize that your current models of recruiting and staffing aren’t working and don’t reflect the current realities of life and of emergency services. What may well need doing is changing who’s “leading” volunteer fire and EMS. And this next generation of volunteer leaders needs to understand that some help is better than ideal help that doesn’t exist.
