N.H. Towns Find it Hard to Recruit, Keep Call Firefighters

Money issue: Low pay among reasons cited.

Fire departments in New Hampshire towns that rely on part-time, or "call," firefighters are finding it harder to find and keep good help these days.

Smaller towns with tight budgets have traditionally relied on call firefighters when fires or medical emergencies occur. Most pay full-time salaries to their fire chiefs, but their on-call firefighters are paid $8 to $15 an hour on average, according to the New Hampshire Local Government Association.

The number of available call firefighters has dropped substantially in smaller towns in the past several years, according to the association, mostly because of the slow economy. Many employers have stopped allowing workers to leave when their fire departments call, and those that do often won't pay the firefighters for the work time lost, said Campton-Thornton Fire Department Chief David Tobine.

"They are finding they can't afford to lose a day's pay or a night's sleep because they need their jobs, and most employers aren't letting them go or aren't paying them if they do," Tobine said.

Small departments are also losing more call firefighters lately to larger town and city departments, which offer them full-time, good-paying jobs as career firefighters. Replacing them is difficult, in part, because potential new firefighters can't afford the cost and time required for state certification classes and training, said Center Harbor Fire Chief John Schlemmer. While most towns require certification, many won't pay the $2,000 price tag involved.

"There's definitely a problem in public safety with hiring and retaining people," said Scott Weden, the manager of health, safety and marketing at the Local Government Center and a former firefighter and police officer in Ashland.

"It's very hard to recruit people for public service in this day and age," Weden said. "Day and night jobs consume more of people's time than they did in the past, and towns aren't willing to spend much these days."

Smaller town departments are more heavily reliant than ever on mutual aid from neighboring fire departments. While one- and two-alarm fires used to draw manpower from neighboring towns, now three or four alarms are more the norm, Schlemmer said.

Goffstown Fire Chief Richard O'Brien, who also dealt with recruitment and retention difficulties when he was the fire chief in Rye, sees trouble ahead "if we don't find ways to respond to the times we live in."

"We need new people to come through the door and pick up the slack. If we don't find ways of getting them in to the fire service, a lot of towns will be in real trouble," O'Brien said. "These days, people aren't showing as much interest in firefighting."

Fire chiefs are trying to find new ways of attracting new call firefighters. Schlemmer, who is his town's only full-time firefighter, is working with the town to add benefits for his part-timers, including secondary insurance plans, disability insurance and retirement plans.

Tobine solved part of his town's recruitment and retention problem four years ago by convincing his district's towns to hire five full-time firefighters. But he is worried about retaining the department's 25 call officers and is also looking for new recruitment and retention methods. His towns pay the certification costs for new call firefighters.

O'Brien, whose town also pays for firefighter certification, has 12 full-time firefighters on staff, but he knows a portion of his 50 call firefighters will likely leave.

"We have to heavily recruit, because retention is an ongoing problem," he said. "We know people are going to train here and then leave for careers in the cities. My hope is to retain 15 or 20 of my call folks and aggressively recruit replacements as people go."

Chris Conway of Moultonborough is a call firefighter in Center Harbor, where he was recently promoted to lieutenant. His employer lets him leave when he's called, but won't pay him for his missed time. He is planning to leave his call position for a full-time firefighting career, likely in a city, in the future

"If I was getting paid to be at the firehouse five days a week, I could do it, but I have to make a living, and that's not easy these days," Conway said.

He doesn't like the thought of leaving his post in Center Harbor because he is increasingly needed. "It's getting tougher and tougher," he said. "In a city you get multiple responses to calls. We get about seven people responding on average."

His department has 24 call firefighters, "but there's been many times when it's been just me and my chief going to a call," he said.

For now, at least, "my chief knows I will be there," he said.

"If they offered me a full-time job here, I'd stay here the rest of my life," he said.