Volunteer Fire Departments Look To FASNY Program To Get Young Recruits

LIMA, N.Y.– Members of the Lima Volunteer Fire Department pride themselves on being the oldest department in Livingston County. But, there’s a growing concern that one day, the historic station might not be around. Looking at the list of members on the office wall, it may be easy to see why.

“From 40 plus we have a very healthy membership, but that was from the generation of community support and community spirit,” Pribanich said.

Pribanich said it’s come down to relying on neighboring volunteer stations to help make a full crew.

“It’s very, very difficult to fill the roles not only at our department, but any volunteer fire department at this point,” Pribanich said.

Over at Rush’s department, they have the luxury of recruiting through their ‘Fire Explorer Program.’ But, Diana Pfersick doesn’t deny it can be difficult.

“There are a lot of demands in people’s jobs these days and a lot of people are working more than one job, their hours aren’t as regular as they used to be,” said Pfersick, who is on the board of directors of FASNY.

Between the 1990’s and the turn of the century, the number of volunteer firefighters across the state dropped from 120,000 to 80,000. Even though numbers are on the rise, they’re still not where the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York wants them to be.

“One of the biggest components of our recruitment or retention program over the past four to five years, has been a community college tuition reimbursement program,” said John D’Alessandro, Deputy Volunteer Programs Coordinator of FASNY.

But, there’s a problem. The $4.2 million federal SAFER Grant that helped kick start the program expired. FASNY was denied a new grant.

“The truth is that these programs are costly, New York is a big complex state, if we don’t have that federal assistance we are probably going to have to scale back all of our recruitment and retention efforts and certainly the tuition reimbursement program,” said D’Alessandro.

The program is ongoing and Pribanich is hoping younger generations take advantage of it before it’s too late.

“We need new blood and new young members that can carry this torch for us,” Lima Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jim Pribanich said.

FASNY is in the process of reapplying for the federal grant. The association will find out in three to six months if it will receive assistance.

The association will be holding a recruitment day at volunteer fire departments across the state on April 23 and 24.