WHAT MOTIVATES AND DISCOURAGES VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS

This is an excerpt from Firerescue1.com article about retaining volunteer firefighters. It points out three reasons people volunteer to take all the necessary training to be on call 24/7 for when a neighbor needs help.

1. Serving their community
2. Emotional fulfillment
3. Camaraderie within the firehouse

I think the most important of the three reasons people volunteer is the camaraderie around the firehouse. Many volunteer firefighters have worked in the fire service, law enforcement, or the military where you have that camaraderie. I think when you leave the fire service or law enforcement it's that camaraderie and of being part of something bigger that you miss.

In the past when I went to Station 41 in Dolan Springs it wasn't a friendly place. Someone would crack the door and ask what you wanted like you were invading their house, when it's our house... 

With the new leadership it seems to be a friendlier place where you're greeted with a smile rather than, what do you want...  I only hope this camaraderie 
continues and the new volunteers feel a part of their fire department that comes with being a volunteer. 

3 Factors that Motivate Volunteer Firefighters to Join the Service 

Read the complete article here 

Allowing volunteer firefighters to be emotionally fulfilled by serving their communities and feel a part of firehouse camaraderie will help recruitment and retention efforts

Since recruiting and retaining volunteer firefighters has posed a considerable challenge to the fire service over the past several decades, a significant amount of trade and scholarly research has focused on this topic. Researchers and fire service leaders have worked tirelessly to better understand what’s causing the decline and to craft solutions to recruit more volunteers.

One of the major initiatives has been to identify what motivates someone to become a volunteer firefighter. It’s been found that volunteers are largely motivated by the following three factors. 

1. Serving their community: Volunteer firefighters are seeking a meaningful and practical way to serve their neighbors. Their service includes not only responding to emergency calls, but participating in community-oriented events such as chili-dinner fundraisers, public education events at schools and more. These are people who thrive on engaging with the community and putting their training to valuable use. A proven way to burn-out volunteers is with insignificant or infrequent service opportunities.
2. Emotional fulfillment: Studies are proving that volunteer firefighters are not motivated by money. The emotional feelings of value and worth are the only return that most volunteers desire. Volunteers at successful volunteer organizations report that they would continue to perform their duties without pay simply because they love what they do. Making volunteer firefighters question their community worth is an effective way to remove the love for what they do. 
3. Camaraderie within the firehouse: Firefighters have historically been gripped by the sense of community and camaraderie around the firehouse. This network of support, education and enjoyment, often referred to as the brotherhood, is rarely experienced in other professions. Fire departments with an absent, negative, or cliquey sense of community make it difficult and unenjoyable for volunteers to join. This is especially true in combination departments that occasionally foster divides between career and volunteer firefighters.

Although there may be some overlap, the motivations of volunteer firefighters differ from those of career firefighters. Figuring out how to appeal directly to volunteers has proven to be a considerable challenge for many fire service leaders. A sustainable and realistic solution has yet to be identified. Continued attention and research on volunteer firefighter retention and recruitment is therefore critical to the system’s survival.

The next article in this series will explore political obstacles, employee requirement and retention, and increasing call volumes, which tied for the third most prominent and influential challenges to combination departments.