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Volunteer fire departments work hard to attract and retain new members.
MOOOSOMIN – Saskatchewan’s volunteer firefighting force continues to need new blood, but increasingly stringent training requirements are making the process more complex than in the past.
“It’s definitely going to be an issue,” Wapella Fire Chief Adam Knudson said. “For the past five years, we’ve been sending people to the fire school to try to cover up some things. In the past three years, we’ve probably had three to five internal courses as well.”
Despite the efforts to train new members, keeping them with the company appears to be another difficulty.
“Talent retention is a big thing,” said Knudsen, who has worked for the department for 20 years. “We put everyone in training for a year or two, and I would say the average is probably two-and-a-half, three years because people eventually move on and change their situation.”
The Wapella Volunteer Fire Department currently has 18 firefighters, 13 of whom are active. Knutson noted that Wapella is a fairly quiet department that provides mutual aid transportation assistance to surrounding departments and primarily handles grass fires. They hold monthly meetings, typically hold training sessions every four weeks, and warmly welcome new faces in the halls.
Another big challenge smaller rural departments face is the cost of the equipment firefighters need to do their jobs. In addition, rules under minimum standards (such as the age limit of responding units being 20 years old) pose additional difficulties.
“The cost of everything is skyrocketing. A piece of fire equipment has to be less than 15 years old, and ours is 15 years old and we’ve only had six fires,” Knutson said.
The rural sector receives financial support from the municipalities it serves, putting pressure on smaller communities and rural areas trying to balance growing budget demands.
“I think we’re going to lose a lot of small town departments, not because of a lack of volunteers, but because of a lack of funding,” Knudson said.
In Moosomin, there are 24 firefighters on the roster, but Fire Chief Rob Hanson said they could use five to six more. In terms of equipment and training, the Moosomin Fire Department is fully equipped, including specialized training for water, ice and grain trap rescues. But it all depends on people, especially young and enthusiastic people, who can put in the time.
Whitewood is another place looking for new people to don the fire uniform. Fire Chief Bernard Brule said the fire department currently has 17 members, but he would like to see that number increase to 22. There are both experienced and new members, ranging from 5 years of experience to over 30 years old. A valuable recruiting tool at Whitewood is the Junior Firefighter Program, where 16-year-old firefighters receive valuable training before they are ready to go out on duty.
“For years, we usually had one or two junior firefighters, who were actually kids between 16 and 18 years old,” Brewer explained. “This is the first year we haven’t had anyone. So over the years, we’ve had really good success with our members coming through the junior classes. We have three members who have been here for 10 years.”
Brewer noted that the fire department plans to host another recruiting campaign on its Facebook page soon, noting some key things applicants should be aware of before applying.
“They need to be in good health and not have any back problems,” he said, noting that there’s a lot of lifting and hauling involved. Ultimately, people who live and work in the city will be an asset because they have the ability to quickly respond to the lobby when a call comes in.
“That’s one thing we struggle with because we have a lot of our members working out of the field,” Brewer said.
On average, the Whitewood Volunteer Fire Department receives approximately 50 calls per year regarding motor vehicle collisions, grass and structure fires, STARS landings and mutual aid with other fire departments and EMS.
Commitment is similar to other departments, with several training meetings per month.
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