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Fire Departments Across Wisconsin Searching for Residents Willing to Step Up

LaToya Dennis
Around 69 percent of fire departments across the country depend on volunteers

Some Wisconsin communities that have long relied on volunteer and part-time firefighters are now facing a shortage of people willing to help out. Alegislative committee formed this summer to address the problem, but in the meantime, fire departments are doing what they can to make sure they're able to respond to emergencies.

Ryan Moeller says volunteer firefighters are a dying breed. And if anyone would know, he would. Up until about two years ago, Moeller worked as an on-call employee for the Mukwonago Fire Department. His starting probationary pay was $8.50 an hour, but only while out on calls.

“Now imagine that it’s two in the morning and by the time you go home and get to bed, its 4 am, and now you have to get up in an hour in a half for your full-time job for $17.”

Moeller says besides the low pay, the uncertainty of the hours is hard on people.

“You’re always available, but you’re not always being paid. So when you’re on shift, you have to be in the community. You can’t see family, friends that live outside the community ‘cause you have to be in the area,” he says.

And then Moeller says there are the added constraints of having other jobs and needing permission to leave work to answer calls as well as the amount of training needed. He says it’s no wonder fire departments are having trouble finding people.

And, if the paid on-call people don't show up...

“Then we don’t have a fire department," says Mukwonago Fire Lt. Matthew Sura.

“At 6 pm, it’s going to be very hard for us to respond effectively to not only one call, but multiple calls. You’re not going to get much,” he says.

Sura is only four hours into his 24-hour shift and is already pounding an energy drink. “I didn’t get my breakfast this morning, so ‘til I can get everything back to normal on my truck, this is my breakfast,” he says.

Getting ‘everything back to normal’ in this instance means restocking meds. Sura says the majority of emergency calls are medical-related.

These days, Mukwonago has about six full-time firefighters but it still relies on people willing to work part-time. He says when he first started, they had a reserve of more than 60 part-timers, but he says those numbers are down.

“I think it has to do with what we ask of them. When I started, I think we were lucky to hit 1,000 calls. I think this year, we’re going to be close to 2,400 or 2,500. So the more that you ask of them, the less that they want to give and some people think it’s just not worth it anymore,” Sura says.

But across the country, budgets are strapped when it comes to hiring more full-time firefighters. Christopher Garrison knows; he’s chief in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

“With a growing community like Sun Prairie, I mean how do you come and tell your taxpayers, hey, we need new schools, we need more firemen, we need more cops? This is a truly economical way to do things,” Garrison says.

Garrison has eight full-time employees and is hoping to hire a handful more. He also has about 45 volunteers. "Our volunteers come in and work from 6 at night until 6 in the morning,” he says.

Sun Prairie pays them a stipend of $120 per shift. Garrison says while the model may seem antiquated, it still works.

Nationwide, around 69 percent of fire departments rely on volunteers, according to Kevin Quinn. He’s chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council.

Quinn says people don’t run toward danger for the money. “They do it as a passion from the heart,” he says.

The real problem, Quinn insists, is marketing. “Seventy-nine percent of individuals are not aware that volunteer fire departments are even seeking volunteers. So we have to kind of do an awareness program with the fire department,” he says.

Quinn says his organization is also lobbying Congress to provide benefits for volunteer firefighters, and it has started a junior firefighter program to attract people young.

Back in Mukwonago, the city has started a cadet program. Part-timer Ryan Moeller isn’t convinced it will be enough, when it wants people to work for close to minimum the wage, at least in the beginning.

“We’re gonna to have to pay people to be firefighters, paramedics, EMTs. The amount of training and the amount of time you have to commit, frankly, time is money,” he says.

And Moeller says you have to make the pay worth the time.

LaToya was a reporter with WUWM from 2006 to 2021.
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