We must take a stand for volunteers – our essential workers – to ease financial burdens The public and elected officials need to better understand the impact of inflation and rising gas prices on volunteer firefighters Every firefighter is feeling the effects of inflation, especially from gasoline prices, as we go to and from our […]
Volunteer Firefighters Have Higher Levels of “Forever Chemicals”
Levels of potentially health-threatening chemicals rise with years of service, Rutgers study finds Volunteer firefighters — who comprise more than 65 percent of the U.S. fire service — have higher levels of “forever chemicals,” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in their bodies than the general public, according to a Rutgers study. The study, which was […]
Calling all Volunteers: 3 Ways to increase the Volunteer Member Pool
It’s 3:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. Tones have just dropped for a medical call for a 72-year-old female who has fallen. Silence over the radio as you get up and respond to the station. No one else has responded on the radio or your phone app, so you request dispatch to page the call […]
‘And that’s OK’: Not all Volunteers want to operate like FDNY
Volunteers have lives beyond our station walls, and we cannot force them to all have the same level of commitment and passion FireRescue1 Voices is a place where firefighters across the country can speak up, tell their stories about difficult calls and voice their opinions. If you want to share your story with the FireRescue1 community, […]
Unfamiliar Avenues: Engaging future Volunteers
It will take a unique mix of leadership, external communications and technological solutions to reverse the downward trend in volunteerism Ask a group of volunteers why they join the fire department, and their responses will be immeasurably varied. Personally, I joined the fire department out a sense of boredom. A sense of boredom stemming from […]