OAKDALE, Minn. — Oakdale's Summerfest parade marched down 15th Street Thursday evening and the city's fire department hopes parade goers noticed a sign along the route.
"We're trying to recruit volunteer firefighters," said Oakdale'sFire Chief Jeff Anderson of a large 'now hiring' sign in front of the department's station off 15th Street, "We've been trying different methods, the sign is our latest."
Anderson says the department currently has 14 full-time firefighters, including himself and the Deputy Chief, and 26 paid-on-call firefighters. Anderson says he'd like to have 30 paid-on-call firefighters, but that hasn't happened for more than five years.
"In years past... we would get probably 20 to 25 applications during these hiring processes," Anderson said.
But when the Oakdale Fire Department started accepting applications last fall, they received only three, so few that they decided to put hiring on hold until the spring. Since opening the hiring window again, they've received four more applications.
"Statewide, and even nationwide, this shortage of volunteer firefighters is a real problem," Anderson said.
Anderson thinks a couple factors are at play. First, he says it's a huge time commitment and people are busier now. He also cites the dangers of the job.
"The cancer rate for firefighters is far and above that for the general public and also the rates of post-traumatic stress disorder," he said.
Anderson says in addition to fewer people volunteering, they've also seen an increase in calls. He estimates in Oakdale, call volume has gone up about ten percent every year. About 75 to 80 percent of those calls, he says, are medical related. Anderson thinks the increase is due to the aging population.
"Obviously, the more calls we have, the more need we have for additional personnel," he said.
Anderson says right now Oakdale has enough firefighters to get by, but with looming retirements and a training process for new hires which takes about two years, that won't soon be the case.
"If we get two, three, four more people retire, we're going to be hurting for people," he said.
Anderson says it hasn't been as hard to hire full-time firefighters, as those positions are salaried and come with benefits, but they also cost the city a lot more money to staff. So, hiring more full-time firefighters instead of additional paid-on-call, isn't always a solution.
It is, however, the solution the Brooklyn Park Fire Department is choosing. Chief John Cunningham says they've also struggled staffing the paid-on-call positions, which is why their strategic plan involves ending the paid-on-call program by the end of 2019.
Instead, Cunningham says, they're reallocating the money used for paid-on-call firefighters to hire additional full-time firefighters. There won't be as many full-time hires as there would have been paid-on-call, but Cunningham says it's a better use of resources.
Applications for the paid-on-call firefighter positions with the Oakdale Fire Department, can be found here.