The amount of firefighters in Minnesota and across the US is shrinking. SBM is trying to be proactive in their effort to get more qualified people to join the profession. “Our numbers are going down,” said SBM Fire Chief Dan Retka.
“We are seeing a huge decrease within firefighters and people who want to serve and that usually comes from generational differences,” said Natalie Streich, SBM’s Recruitment and Retention Coordinator.
SBM has a department of 35 which is not even close to their goal of 100. SBM is struggling to fill volunteer positions especially from Generation Z.
“Currently it’s just a pension,” Streich said. “It’s now kind of switching over to a paid position. That’s just because we need to do something different with our recruiting and our younger generation.”
“We’re always looking for volunteers,” Retka said. “Our bread and butter has always been the volunteer model…We’re finding out they want to get paid and they want to get paid now. So we are shifting our model from how we’ve done things in the past. For the last 75 years we’ve been a volunteer fire department. We are switching to a paid on-call and we are going to start paying our folks in January 2024.”
Casting a wide net
Streich’s job has a specific focus on bringing in more firefighters.
Said Streich: “The state of Minnesota needs firefighters now.”
Streich’s mission is to fill up fire house lockers with new employees and solve this shortage through marketing and other creative ideas. Firefighting is baked into Streich’s DNA – she comes from a family of firefighters and has a passion for the profession.
“I’m very optimistic that we can get more volunteer firefighters,” Streich said.
“It’s an industry like no other,” Retka said. “It gives you a feeling like no other.”
Streich believes SBM needs to cast a wide net and become more diverse.
“If you look up a firefighter now a days on Google, it’s mostly just white males,” Streich said. “We want to make sure that we are hitting all different diversities, all different cultures to make those connections. It’s not just white males that can be firefighters nowadays.”
Retka is in total harmony with Streich.
Said Retka: “We need to do a hard reset on how we’re recruiting and the types of folks we’re going after.”
Retka thinks the department should reach out to everyone.
“Natalie’s absolutely right,” Retka said. “It’s always been the white male, the stereotypical firefighter that we’re going after. We’re missing a huge, huge opportunity to start pulling in people from every ethnicity.”
Crisis mode
Minnesota ranks 48th in the US when it comes to funding fire departments. Combine that with declining numbers and things are close to being in crisis mode.
“It’s a major issue right now, staffing,” Retka said. “It’s public enemy number 1 for fire service.”
Because SBM is operating well below capacity. Retka is concerned that a small staff could hamper their efforts to respond if something catastrophic happens.
“We’ve got an airport in our district – a major airport in our district,” Retka said. “At any point we could have a plane drop down in one of our communities and cause a major, major catastrophe. For me as a fire chief here, it’s my goal and the expectation of the community that we’re putting out a fighting force that can go take care of these events safely and effectively.”
