Doing more with Less: Small Town Fire Departments are struggling to recruit Volunteers

WORCESTER COUNTY, Mass. – Many small fire departments in Central Massachusetts have been doing more with less the past few decades. The numbers of calls are going up, while interest in firefighting is going down.

“It is really hard to appropriately serve the town without enough personnel,” Princeton Fire Chief John Bennett said.

The Princeton and Paxton fire departments rely heavily on ​on-call volunteers. They get hundreds of medical and fire calls a year and work to pull together enough personnel to safely respond.

“There’s nothing mandating them coming to the call,” said Paxton Fire Chief Michael Pingitore. “They are doing it voluntarily.”

During the day, most volunteer firefighters aren’t working in town, so departments are left unsure of who they can count on to show up.  Read More…