New Jersey Volunteer Fire Departments Struggle with Staffing
Fear of the Covid virus has created logistical and staffing issues for local fire departments in Montville Township, New Jersey.
“It’s like jumping into a pool of sharks,” said Carol DaCosta, a volunteer firefighter with 27 years of experience, speaking of the dangers of firefighting during a public-health crisis.
For some volunteer firefighter departments, the pandemic has exacerbated recruitment and retention issues that were already present before Covid-19. Between 2015 and 2017, the number of volunteer firefighters in the United States decreased by 17%, according to a report from the National Fire Prevention Association. Roughly 70% of firefighters nationwide are volunteers.
“We do have some people that are older and have health issues,” DaCosta said. “They have not been riding as much. They maybe opted to do more administrative work.”
Additionally, three firefighters in DaCosta’s department have contracted covid, forcing the department to work with even fewer hands than usual. This can create problems, especially during daytime hours when most volunteer firefighters are busy working their day jobs.
DaCosta herself had a case that left her out of commission for 6 six weeks this fall. “I was pretty much unconscious in my bed the entire time,” said DaCosta.
When the pandemic first started in March, the fire school in Morris County, New Jersey closed down for five months, leaving many firefighter trainees in limbo. DaCosta said that she was almost 70% done with her officer training course at the time.
Other new would-be firefighters were not able to complete their introductory firefighting courses.
Firefighting requires lots of hands-on training, which makes remote learning a poor substitute. In August, when the courses started back up again, many people couldn’t commit to finishing the course on such short notices because their plans had changed.
Now, fire schools have returned with some limited capacity in-person instruction, but they have given career firefighters a priority over volunteers. This has resulted in some volunteer firefighting departments allowing their staff to do certain jobs even without official training.
“They’ve been a little bit lax where they say, ‘You’re a captain and you’re supposed to have this requirement, but we’re going to let it slide now because there have not been opportunities to take the classes,’” said DaCosta.
Firefighters feel that any extra staff they can get is helpful right now.
“Covid is just one more wrinkle for people to contend with in their busy lives. And I don’t think they have time to think about volunteering for the fire department,” said Tawaco volunteer firefighter Jeffrey Kinkead.
