Fire departments across the province have a new tool recruited much needed volunteers.
Earlier in June, www.albertavolunteerfirefighters.ca was launched. The goal; to get Albertans thinking about helping their communities through their local fire departments.
Local fire chiefs are hoping the site will help with the constant challenges of recruitment and retention.
“A lot of municipalities do not have volunteers for emergency services. It’s an ongoing issue in the fire service,” said Drumheller Fire Chief Bill Bachynski.
“The executives of the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association have been working on recruitment and retention for quite some time. Every volunteer fire department deals, at one point or another, with that challenge,” said Munson Fire Chief Steve Wannstrom.
According to the website, 80 per cent of firefighters in Alberta are volunteers and 97 per cent of fire departments in the province are run by volunteers.
“Without volunteers, you wouldn’t have a department,” said Wannstrom.
There are a couple challenges when attracting volunteers for fire departments. Volunteers must be willing to sacrifice their time to respond to emergencies and train and potential recruits must be able to leave work at a moments notice should an emergency arise.
However, the benefits of joining far outweigh the big commitment. Helping the community and the camaraderie are big parts of what it means to be a volunteer firefighter.
“It’s the personal satisfaction of doing something for the community you live in and you are part of an organization that is close knit,” said Bachynski.
“It’s giving back to the community, you feel good about helping out,” said Wannstrom.
Anyone interested is encouraged to go to the new website. On it, there are links where potential volunteers can learn what the requirements are and to have an application sent to the nearest fire department.
“It’s another tool for access. Some people don’t know where to go or what to do to volunteer. Getting the website out is important so people, who are even just curious, can look and read about volunteering,” said Wannstrom. “You’ve got to have the commitment and the training, but anyone, business owners, welders, newspaper guys, can volunteer.”
“Anyone interested in volunteering, take a serious look at it,” said Bachynski. “It’s a commitment not to be taken lightly. Municipalities are always looking for people to volunteer.”