Ninety-four percent of fire protection services offered in New York state are provided by volunteers according to Jackie Bray, the commissioner of the state's Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

In 1995, data from the U.S. Fire Administration shows there were 838,000 volunteer firefighters per 1,000 people nationwide. In 2020 there were 676,000 volunteer firefighters nationwide in what public policy experts are calling a crisis.

“I would say the bad news is that these are chronic, persistent problems that are not easily solvable. But the good news is that you do have a lot of really great minds, the professional associations, state policymakers who are working on this actively,” said Dr. Lisa Parshall, a distinguished professor at Daemen University and policy fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

In Sept. 2022, she published a report called The Consolidation of Fire Protection Services in New York State, which explores the possibility of closing and merging departments in regions where safe staffing is difficult or impossible.

She said the system we use today to respond to fires, separating cities, villages and towns, is based on colonial times and populations, and that the laws and restrictions placed on municipalities complicate recruitment and retention efforts. However, the role these fire companies have played in their communities for centuries makes consolidation difficult.

“Closing or merger of fire departments is something that is actively resisted because they are so much part of the social fabric,” said Parshall.

Additionally, the state is not considering an all-paid fire service because the cost would be in the billions. Volunteer firefighters currently save taxpayers $4.7 billion annually.

Instead, a DHSES task force was formed in 2022, made up of legislators and firefighters, to make recommendations for fire departments to tackle their low recruitment and retention concerns.

Some of those recommendations include:

Bray said the BOCES partnership recommendation has been shown to work well in some areas.

“That's starting to make a real difference," said Bray. "You know, I was in Endicott recently, and that fire department has actually grown by more than 20% over the last year. That’s a real turnaround.”

Bray also said consolidation is not a blanket fix and should only be considered for regions struggling to staff their calls.

“When we say it might be time to look at shared services or in some communities, some might be time to look at consolidation. That is not a knock on the volunteer fire service. We are simultaneously pouring tens of millions of dollars into the volunteer fire service to help them with recruitment, to help them make sure that they're keeping up with their capital needs," said Bray. "And it's our job to just take a yes-and all of the above approach.”

Bray said the 2024 budget includes stipends to pay volunteers between $500 and $1,250 to take basic and interior training courses. Previously the 80 to 120 hours of training were unpaid.

She said DHSES has also created V-FIRE Grants from a $25 million capital fund for volunteer fire service improvements like apparatus, firehouses, etc.

Looking ahead, Bray said she wants to see legislators take a creative approach to solving the issue and possibly prioritize more stipends, not just for training but also for ordinary costs like gas to respond to emergencies.

Related links:

Part I: Double duty: Farmer and firefighter grapples with recruitment crisis

Part II: Examining the relationship between public policy and volunteer firefighter shortage

Part III: Fire company boosts recruitment by building relationships