Iowa fire departments are struggling with the need for more volunteers

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, the number of volunteer firefighters in Iowa is down 20%; When a fire department is overloaded, calls can go unanswered.

“There are fire departments that miss calls… This happens more often the harder it is to find members of the fire department, especially in smaller, all-volunteer fire departments,” said Bill Schmooke of the North Liberty Fire Department.

Schmooke said the lack of volunteers is a near-constant problem for fire stations in Iowa and across the United States. The lack of volunteers can impact emergency response in several ways.

“If you don’t have enough people, you can’t have an effective fire attack,” said Marv Trimble, a director of the National Volunteer Fire Council in Iowa. “There’s pretty much an automatic call for mutual aid.”

With mutual aid, a department calls nearby stations for help, which can result in longer response times.

“If no one in that community is available to respond to calls, they call the neighboring community,” Schmooke said. “In everyday life, this means that the response time is very long and that is completely contradictory to what we want to achieve at the fire department.

Schmooke and Trimble, both of whom have been with the fire department for decades, have several ideas as to what could be causing the shortage, one of the reasons being age.

“Men my age are coming out, it’s a young people thing and some young people have a hard time convincing themselves that there’s a need in their community,” Trimble said. “I would say that probably 15 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago, you could see a decline in the number of young people coming into the fire service.”

Another challenge could be juggling other responsibilities, such as a full-time job or family, in addition to the demands of being on call for emergencies.

Retention is as big an issue as recruiting. The goal is to recruit volunteers who can stay longer than five years.

Unlike smaller stations, the North Liberty Fire Department is well staffed. Schmooke credits grants the department has received from national groups. His department received a $725,000 FEMA grant to support volunteers over four years.

While this funding is helpful, the spirit within a station also contributes significantly.

“For the most part, there are no monetary gains. There may be some benefits to working in a department, but first and foremost it is the pride, the pride in your community,” Trimble said.

It is also a great incentive for volunteers to help the community.

“Someone calls 911, they’re having a bad day, you and your team come over and they train to hopefully make that day a little bit better,” Schmooke said. “It’s a kind of personal reward that feels really great.”

The National Fire Volunteer Fire Council offers online resources to assist departments in awarding grants.

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