The Volunteer Crisis
From The NFPA Podcast by National Fire Protection Association
February 10, 2026 · 1h 6m · Episode 131
About this episode
The episode discusses the crisis in volunteer firefighting, exploring the reasons behind the decline in volunteers and potential solutions.
Volunteer firefighters are the backbone of the U.S. emergency response system, but since 2008, nearly 200,000 volunteers have left the fire service, a drop of almost 25 percent. To make things worse, calls to fire departments have increased about 70 percent since 2008, leaving the firefighters who remain to do much more with much less. Despite all of this, little research has been done to find the causes of this crisis and what to do about it. But that is starting to change. Today on the podcast, I am joined by Joe Maruca, a board member of the National Volunteer Fire Council, and Ken Willette, the executive director of the North American Fire Training Directors. Both men recently worked with researchers on a massive new study looking at what effects training requirements have had on volunteer fire department recruitment and retention. During the interview, we discuss the many factors that have caused volunteers to leave the fire service, and how volunteer departments are adapting to their new reality. We also talk about what is being done to help chiefs and communities bring more volunteers into the fire service. Links: Read the new Fire Protection Research report…
People in this episode
Host: National Fire Protection Association
Guests: Joe Maruca, Ken Willette
Topics covered
- volunteer firefighters
- emergency response
- recruitment
- retention
- fire service crisis
- training requirements
Keywords
- volunteer crisis
- firefighters
- emergency response
- recruitment
- retention
- training requirements
- fire service
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: National Volunteer Fire Council, North American Fire Training Directors, National Fire Protection Association
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