Can Diversity Save the Volunteer Fire Service?

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Written by Ed Rush, Chief of the Hartsdale Fire District. Local departments are discussed in the article, and this is something I've always wondered about myself, and I agree with the points in this article. Thanks to snotty for the heads up on this piece.

Can Diversity Save the Volunteer Fire Service?
November 16, 2015 issue of IAFC On Scene
By Chief Edward Rush, Hartsdale Fire District

I don’t need to recite the statistics; we all know the problem. We need to be honest with ourselves and realize that the volunteer fire service in the United States is dying a slow death.

We all know we’re losing a steady number of volunteers because of many people’s need for two incomes, increased family responsibilities, generational differences, training requirements, government regulations and so on and so on.

The big question is, what are we going to do about it?

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.iafc.org/onScene/article.cfm?ItemNumber=8777

[FFPCogs 863]

As the primary recruiter here in Stamford I can only say this: I will seek out anyone, anywhere....I don't care where you live, what your race is, what religion you practice or don't or what's between your legs...if you're willing and able to do the work we need you to do, than I'm happy to have you. If a department needs members (and who doesn't) and they don't tap ALL the resources they have available to them, than they're committing suicide...it may be slowly or it may be quickly but the end result will be the same, their organization will end up in the dustbin of history.

OK, that said, let me also add that making our VFDs more diverse does not have to mean we are turning our backs on our history and traditions. Sure, diversity can mean the end of "our culture" as we know it, especially if prejudices and ignorance hold sway, or diversity can enhance, strengthen and reinforce our culture to not only stave off our own extinction, but make it better...the choice is up to us. The responsibility for what our VFDs are now and what they can become rests squarely on our shoulders, no one else. We CAN embrace diversity and still remain who we are, but it takes willingness and work. It is the job of those of us who ARE our organization now to pass along our history, our traditions and our culture, those things that define us, to those who are coming along after us and who WILL BE our organizations in the future, even if they don't look like us or practice our religion or use the same restroom...for if we don't, we won't have a future

[AFS1970 504]

Diversity may be one way to fix our recruiting problem, but it is not the only one. It may not even be the right one for some districts. It might just be present already in some areas.

I remember a number of years ago before I was a member anywhere, there was an article in our local paper targeting one of the local VFD's and their supposed lack of diversity. This district while fairly large, was a primarily white suburban area of town. One of the community leaders interviewed did not understand why the department was not recruiting at the local high school (pre OSHA age limit days) that was near one of their stations.

That department did try and do some recruiting there after the article. They got a few members, but being kids, many were more interested in when they would get blue lights then when they would attend training. That was the ones that had cars. This district relied on home responders for the majority of calls, and the high school drew from a few low income neighborhoods where many kids did not have cars. Thus this was a short lived program.

A friend of mine is an EMS chief in NJ. His town has a growing Hispanic community, but he has had trouble reaching out to them to volunteer. The next town over has several fire companies, all neighborhood based and as an extension of that geography are historically ethnically based. When one of the firehouses suffered a fire, my friend referred to it as the black firehouse, because even now that is what it largely is.

I do not doubt that we have not sought out new recruits from outside of the neighborhood. However I am not sure that this was any intentional lack of diversity . I had a high school teacher who was turned down from the department that I eventually joined. He was turned down because he did not live in the district. By the time I joined that was not a rule they enforced although it was still listed. I never lived in the district. That teacher was not only white, but Irish, an ethnic group that can not be said to be under represented in the fire service.

This article brings up some interesting points, but I just hope it is not diversity for it's own sake.

[FFPCogs 863]

Diversity may be one way to fix our recruiting problem, but it is not the only one.

But it is one that is fast becoming a..or dare I say THE...major factor. And it's not just Hispanic or Black we're talking about here, there are numerous other ethnic or minority groups that fall into the non traditional "supply" of volunteers including Indians, Eastern European immigrants, Asians and of course women to name a few. These are the resources available and we have to reach out to them every chance we get. For better or for worse the simple fact is average white, middle class 18-25 year old males just aren't as interested in volunteering as they once were. Sadly many feel there's not much in it for them or they just don't care, plus it's dirty, hot, manual labor that many find "beneath them" to do. But you know what it really doesn't matter why they aren't flocking to our doors, it only matters that they aren't. We have to recognize what we have to work with and then work with it. Right now we are seeing a decisive shift in the communities who are willing join, the question is what are we going to do about it.?

This article brings up some interesting points, but I just hope it is not diversity for it's own sake.

I definitely didn't get that read from the article, but since you mention it, no one should be lowering their standards for the sake of numbers or a "rainbow coalition" of members. This is not the line of work where that should be acceptable, not when lives depend on us. Now sure, diversity is a wonderful thing but in our business that is only true when it compliments or enhances what we, as a service, bring to the table. Diversity for it's own sake or to satisfy some kind of "politically correct" agenda will do nothing other than guarantee mediocrity...and diverse mediocrity is still mediocre no matter how many different shades it comes in. There's enough of that already in this country and no place for it in our business.

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About ten years ago, my nephews were coming into our volunteer department. I told them then that I believed they would be the last of our families volunteer firefighters. That, by the time they had children of their own old enough to be firefighters, it would be an all paid vocation.

I still believe that. For all the reasons previously stated, most younger people don't have the time or the desire to carry on the tradition. Diversity can't change the price of a single family house in Westchester and its' environs.

Urban areas will not be able to maintain volunteer departments capable of providing adequate and timely responses to the increased call volumes. The difficulties we see today will only increase in magnitude as time goes by, at least in my opinion.

I have seen some of these 'live in the station volunteers' which work well in some locations, but for all the recent construction of new, and renovation of existing volunteer firehouses, I have not seen any of them make accommodations for even overnight standbys let alone in house dormitories for live in volunteers. With the exception of truly rural areas, I believe the volunteers are being (deliberately?) regulated to the history books.

And, as always, the taxpayer shall provide the ultimate solution to solving the problem.

[AFS1970 504]

Sometime the lack of diversity is a myth used to perpetuate a certain agenda.

In my old department we once had an unusually diverse group of 6 recruits. One happened to be female. Our Chief was quoted as referring to them all as "The new guys" and a reporter seized on the fact that only 5 of the 6 were in fact guys. Completely missing the point that 2 were Colombian, 1 was Middle Eastern (I forget where exactly) and only 1 was a white male. They didn't even notice that one of the instructors of this group, who was a Captain was also Colombian. Mostly because that did not fit the agenda of the article.

I am all for anything that recruits more volunteers. I was not thinking of any standards being lowered, when I said diversity for its own sake, I was more thinking of a department starting such a program, getting a few recruits and patting themselves on the back for being so diverse all the while not having really meeting their goal but having a few new poster children to parade in front of the community. I am not against diversity by any means, but it should be part of a more comprehensive recruitment plan.

[BFD1054 1,552]

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Great and important topic and replies! Hope to hear some more opinions from those reading this...