Volunteer Firefighters
Spring is upon us. School is about to get out and families are starting to plan vacations. If we are not planning vacations, we are all busy running kids to sporting events, church functions or camp. Never a dull moment.
In this article, I will talk about volunteer agencies and the challenges we have today in the fire service.
Volunteer fire and rescue departments make up almost 70% of the entire United States fire and rescue service, with an additional 16% of combination departments being designated as mostly volunteer. These departments are staffed by over 680,000 volunteer and paid-on-call first responders.
Despite these staggering numbers, volunteer departments often face unique challenges when compared to larger, well-resourced career departments. Volunteer and combination departments are staffed by willing members of the community who choose to engage in first response in their free time, often on top of full-time employment and other commitments. Training requirements for volunteer staff are becoming increasingly demanding, further increasing the overall time commitment.
This is often compounded by organizational-level issues, such as the under-representation of volunteer staff in the department and a lack of acknowledgment from leadership. These obstacles can add to the already stressful nature of the first response, causing volunteers to leave the profession altogether.
Despite these setbacks, volunteer departments are uniquely poised to make department-wide changes to benefit the health and well-being of their volunteer staff. Through analyzing a national sample of 132 fire departments across the nation, the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST) found that size does matter when it comes to fire departments – leadership in volunteer and combination fire and rescue departments are seen by members to be more committed to safety than their career counterparts.
This strong perceived commitment to safety has the potential to protect volunteers from injuries, near-misses, line-of-duty deaths, and organizational outcomes like burnout, poor job satisfaction, and behavioral health concerns. Departments can measure this safety commitment through FOCUS – the Fireservice Organizational Culture of Safety survey.
To date, almost 600 departments and 70,000 firefighters have participated in FOCUS, including over 200 combination and volunteer departments. Organizations have used their data to advocate for gear, staffing, apparatus, and behavioral health resources.
These are the many challenges the volunteer fire service has today. I recommend using resources such as the National Volunteer Council or The National Fire Academy to help with your research.
If the FFAM can be of assistance for you or your agency please contact your director or assistant director or feel free to contact our office. I can be reached at grant_oetting@yahoo.com or by cell phone at 660-229-4525, if I don’t answer please leave a message or send me a text…Until next time…Stay safe my brothers and sisters.
FFAM
