(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
Saratoga Springs Fire Department #1, Lake Avenue.
As regional businesses struggle to fill their job openings, area fire departments are dealing with similar challenges, forcing them to get creative in their efforts to recruit firefighters.
“When I was hired 25 years ago, there were easily 100 to 150 people who would take the firefighter exam for a small number of openings,” says Aaron Dyer, Assistant Chief of the Saratoga Springs Fire Department. “The last time we gave the exam we had 50 or so people take it.”
The city's new Fire Station #3 on Henning Road will open when it is ready later this year — the current date, baring supply chain issues, is sometime in May — but it will not open at full capacity, Dyer said.
Last year, the city won a federal SAFER grant which allows them to hire 16 fire fighters, but Dyer does not think the city will have it this May.
[Read about the SAFER grant here.]
"I have roughly 20 openings right now," Dyer said in a recent interview. "With the hiring I'm doing right now, I'm not going to get anywhere near that."
He said a new recruit school starts in the middle of March for those who have been hired, and he is in the middle of interviews with candidates. The department has also been soliciting for lateral transfers, that is fire fighters from elsewhere in the state who have the civil service requirements the Saratoga department needs.
Most likely, the department will be looking into next year before they have full staffing.
The Saratoga Springs Fire Department employs career firefighters, but the situation is the same, or worse, at many volunteer fire companies.
According to some news reports from 1998 to 2021, the number of volunteer firefighters in New York decreased from 110,000 to 75,000, a 32% drop. More than three-quarters of volunteer fire departments have fewer firefighters than they did two decades ago. During that same period, calls increased by 29%. [FoothillsBusinessDaily.com had a hard time verifying these exact numbers.]
Brandon Combs, Fire Chief of the all-volunteer Lake George Fire Department, estimates that he currently has 15-20 “active” firefighters, individuals who can generally be counted on to respond to calls. He would prefer to have closer to 50 active members.
The reasons behind the decline in interest in firefighting are difficult to pinpoint. Dyer speculates that people may be seeking out more lucrative careers. Combs believes that part of it may be a lack of understanding of the different roles in the department.
“You don’t have to run into a burning building to service the community,” Combs said. “You could drive the fire truck. Or help direct traffic. We even have divers to assist with water rescues.”
Against this backdrop, departments have stepped up their recruitment efforts. Saratoga has opened up their firefighter exam to all New York State residents. Prior to that decision, only residents of Saratoga county or one of its contiguous counties could sit for the city’s firefighter exam. Lake George is in the process of creating a video to help recruit high school students (junior firefighters can start at 16 years-old).
Even the state is working to assist counties with recruitment and retention. Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed legislation that allows Monroe County in Western New York to provide a 10% real property tax exemption to volunteer firefighter or emergency workers. It’s not clear if similar legislation may be introduced for other counties in the state.
[Earlier this week, a Queensbury EMS lieutenant asked the town to consider this. See our brief on it, here.]
The town of Queensbury, which has five volunteer fire companies servicing its 72 square miles, is one municipality that appears to be bucking this trend. Jeff Baertschi, Chief of the North Queensbury Fire Department, attributes their steady membership in part to the demographics of the area.
“A lot of our members are self-employed so they don’t have to get permission from someone to leave work and respond to calls.”
Town Supervisor John Strough believes another reason the town has fared well with recruiting volunteer firefighters is the support they receive from the community.
“We look up to and admire those men and women who volunteer their services for the benefit of our town,” Strough said.
That support was evident when Queensbury residents recently passed a referendum – with 84% approval – to increase the funding in a retirement program set up to benefit the town’s volunteer firefighters.
Despite their good fortune, Baertschi acknowledges that “recruitment and retention is a big problem in our industry,” and it’s not likely to go away any time soon. As Assistant Chief Dyer says, “All of the Capital Region fire departments are pulling from the same pool, and that pool has gotten a lot smaller.”