Fire companies face recruiting problems

Local fire companies have had trouble filling their volunteer rosters for years as the number of people willing and able to serve as volunteer firefighters and EMTs seems to be constantly dwindling.

There are multiple reasons for that. One, as Berlin Fire Chief Andrew Grunden told the mayor and Town Council last week, “A lot of people don’t want to spend a lot of free time for someone they don’t know.”

That’s understandable considering that, according to Gruden and fire company President David Fitzgerald, so much of that time is spent training. According to the website, marylandvolunteer.org, new recruits with no training or experience may have 300 to 4oo hours of training ahead of them in their first year if they want to be a firefighter or EMT.

This training is mandated by the state. There is no such thing as an interested party simply showing up at a fire company, swearing to uphold its standards and then hopping in the truck the next time the alarm sounds.

Joining a company and doing the job requires a serious commitment on the part of the individual and, as Gruden and Fitzgerald noted, fewer people are willing to do that.

But there are also fewer young people here … period. That’s also a factor in this decline in participation: the population is getting older. Young people aren’t staying close to home like they once did. They aren’t going away to school and returning either, because the cost of housing continues to outpace growth in local wages.

According to the Census Bureau, about 30% of the county’s residents are 65 years of age and up. That’s an increase of 6% since 2010 and is why town governments and the county need to work harder on this problem. And we don’t mean throwing in little financial sweeteners here and there. That isn’t going to do it.

The recruiting difficulties being experienced by all local companies is a worsening problem that’s going to need a major solution and, chances are, that means it’s going to involve major spending.