Public safetyRead at source, 23 September 2026

Volunteer firefighter recruitment: the data, and ideas departments can use

Volunteer firefighter recruitment is now a central staffing problem for the American fire service, because volunteers are most of it. According to National Fire Protection Association figures published by the National Volunteer Fire Council, 635,100 of the country’s 1,018,100 firefighters are volunteers — 62 percent — and more than 24,000 of 29,452 fire departments are all or mostly volunteer. The number of volunteers reached a low in 2023, while call volume has more than tripled in 40 years. The departments that recruit well treat it like local hiring: a clear ask, a named time commitment, and ads that reach people in their own district who have never been asked.

Volunteer firefighter recruitment: the numbers behind the problem

Volunteers are the fire service in most of the country. The 18,873 all-volunteer and 5,335 mostly volunteer departments together make up about 82 percent of departments. BLS notes that volunteers account for the largest share of firefighters nationwide, especially in communities of fewer than 25,000, and that its employment figures exclude them.

Demand went one way and supply went the other. The NVFC fact sheet reports that the number of volunteer firefighters reached a low in 2023, while call volume more than tripled over the last 40 years. Fewer people are answering more calls.

The roster is getting older. The NVFC fact sheet, drawing on NFPA age profiles, reports that the age of volunteer firefighters is increasing. A department whose most active members are in their fifties and sixties has a recruitment deadline, whether or not anyone has written it down.

Why fewer people volunteer

The NVFC names three major factors in recruitment difficulty: increased time demands, more rigorous training requirements, and the growth of two-income families. None of them is about willingness to serve. They are about hours.

• Time. A volunteer who once responded to a few calls a month now faces far more, on top of drills and meetings.
• Training. Certification to interior firefighting takes many evenings and weekends before a new member can do the job they signed up for. Many drop out before they finish.
• Work and family. In a two-income household, the person who could once leave during the day often works outside the district.

The practical reading, which is ours rather than NVFC’s: recruitment has to sell a specific, finite commitment rather than “join the fire department.” People who cannot give fifteen hours a week can often give four.

Volunteer firefighter recruitment ideas you can run this quarter

Ask for specific roles, not just firefighters

• Split the ask: interior firefighters, EMS responders, drivers and pump operators, fire police, and support members for administration, fundraising and rehab. A non-firefighting role on the menu gives people who cannot commit to interior training a way in.
• Give each role an honest number of hours a month and the training required before the first call.
• Name the benefits you actually offer: free training and certification, any state or local tax credits, length-of-service awards, and the experience a paid department will look for.

Make the first step small

• Hold an open house on a weekday evening with the apparatus out and current members on hand. Our guide on how to promote a hiring event covers getting the date in front of people.
• Let people express interest with a two-minute form, then call them. The full membership application can come later.
• Invite spouses and families. A new member’s household is part of the commitment.

Recruit from the people already near the station

• Ask local employers whose staff work in the district during the day to allow members to respond. Daytime coverage is often where rosters are thinnest.
• Ask each current member to bring one person to the open house.
• Recruit EMTs and people training in healthcare; many already want response experience. Our page on the EMT shortage covers that workforce.

Firefighter recruitment strategies for the long run

The ideas above fill this year’s class. Firefighter recruitment strategies that change the trend take longer.

• Junior and cadet programs. The USFA’s 2024 workgroup recommended supporting apprenticeship, cadet, internship and supplemental education programs as a way to recruit both career and volunteer personnel.
• Funding. FEMA’s SAFER program funds fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations, with a dedicated Recruitment and Retention category alongside hiring grants. Check the current notice of funding for which activities are eligible.
• Retention as recruitment. A member who leaves in the first year took training time and gave little back. Assign a mentor, shorten the path to the first real call, and ask every departing member why.
• Measure the pipeline. Count inquiries, open-house visitors, applications, members who finish initial training and members still active after a year. The weakest step is where to spend next.

Recruiting volunteers with local Facebook and Instagram ads

A volunteer department’s recruiting area is a few miles around the station, and the people in it are not browsing volunteer portals. Local social ads fit that geometry: they show a message to adults who live inside the district, whether or not they were looking. This is the same playbook Boostpoint runs for small-town employers; our page on rural hiring explains why a small circle needs a different budget and frequency than a city campaign.

• Use your own people. A phone video of a current member explaining why they joined outperforms stock imagery of a burning building. Our hiring post examples show the structure.
• Put the commitment in the first line. “Four hours a week. Free training. No experience needed.” — if that is true for the role.
• Keep the form short. Name, phone, town, and which role interests them. In Boostpoint’s 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the apply experience explained 70 percent of the difference in cost per applicant between campaigns, and half of all campaign-months ran on less than $334.
• Call within 48 hours. Interest fades fast, and a volunteer has less reason to wait than a job applicant.
• Watch frequency. In a small district the same people will see the ad repeatedly. Rotate the video and member stories every few weeks.

Paid and combination departments: firefighter recruitment ideas when you are hiring

Career departments face a different market. BLS counts 355,300 paid firefighters in 2025 and projects 4 percent growth to 368,400 by 2035, with about 26,800 openings a year — roughly 7.5 percent of the workforce annually. The median wage was $59,280 in May 2025, and $59,850 in local government.

The recruitment ideas carry over with two changes. First, the pay, shift schedule and pension go in the first line, because candidates compare departments on exactly those. Second, the testing calendar is the bottleneck: a department that tests once a year loses candidates to one that tests quarterly. Combination departments have an advantage worth using — their own volunteers and EMTs are the best-qualified applicants for paid positions, and the volunteer program is a recruiting pipeline in its own right.

The same local-reach approach applies to other public-safety roles; see our pages on the police officer shortage and the correctional officer shortage.

What this page cannot do

It cannot tell you how many members your department needs. National counts describe the country, and volunteer staffing is intensely local: it depends on call volume, the share of calls that are EMS, where members work during the day, and what your state requires for training. What the numbers do settle is the direction. Volunteers are most of the fire service, their number reached a low in 2023, and the work they are asked to do has grown. Recruitment is now a standing job for every volunteer department, not an occasional drive.

Related: Firefighter Shortage.

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