By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(March 19, 2026) The Berlin Fire Company gave town officials its semiannual update last week, revealing that filling the ranks with volunteers remains a struggle for the department.

Berlin Fire Company President David Fitzgerald and Fire Chief Andrew Grunden attended the Berlin Town Council’s meeting on March 9. The department representatives presented an update on the company’s ongoing activities, covering the period from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.

According to Grunden, the company’s fire-rescue team responded to 74 in-town calls for service and 126 out-of-town calls for service. Over the past six months, the fire team observed an increase of 58 total calls for service.

“This is the way the cookie crumbles,” Grunden said. “We never know when it’s going to be busy or slow.”

During the July to December period, fire-rescue responded to 23 simultaneous calls for service. Simultaneous calls are two or more fire rescue calls occurring at the same time.

“Berlin is famous for having one, two, sometimes three [calls at once],” Grunden noted. “What that means is we get a call, we’re already on a call for service, and another call comes in.”

The fire-rescue response time was four minutes and three seconds, which the fire chief said is within the normal range for Worcester County.

The fire department officials also highlighted their struggle to recruit volunteers. The Berlin Fire Company provides volunteer emergency fire and EMS services to the Town of Berlin and surrounding areas.

Grunden said that the company has found it hard to recruit individuals to lend their time to community protection. The issue, he said, is that fewer and fewer people want to give back for free.

“It’s a struggle,” he said. “It’s a time-consuming thing. People don’t want to spend a lot of time doing something for free…The amount of time training, all that, continues to be problematic … People have to want to take the time to help our community … a lot of people don’t want to spend a lot of free time for someone they don’t know.”

From July through December, the company’s volunteer manpower totaled 1,286.19 hours for emergency calls and 1,498.25 hours for non-emergency events. The non-emergency time included training, meetings, and fundraisers.

“You see the non-emergency stuff, that outnumbers the emergency calls. All the required training, required CPR … driving, classroom sessions … as the chief was mentioning, it’s not only emergency calls, it’s all the other things that keep the company running,” Fitzgerald added.

The president noted that the Berlin Fire Company currently has about 50 active volunteers.

The company’s fire-rescue team has also found fundraising challenging. While Worcester County and the Town of Berlin provide financial assistance each year, the department launches projects to garner additional money.

However, the team’s most recent annual drive earned less than $2,000, compared with the previous year.

The presentation also included an update from the fire company’s EMS team.

From July 1 to Dec. 31, the EMS side responded to 680 in-town calls and 487 out-of-town calls. The group observed an increase of 111 calls in the last six months. Additionally, there were 233 simultaneous calls.