Volunteer fire departments facing shortage of volunteers, ask state to act.<\/p>\n
STUYVESANT, N.Y. (WNYT)- A shortage of volunteer firefighters in New York is raising safety concerns.<\/p>\n
Related: Capital Region firefighter shortage reaching crisis levels<\/a><\/p>\n Fire officials say the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped to its lowest level in over 40 years, affecting small towns like Stuyvesant.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t expect a person who\u2019s working a full-time job, driving an hour to work and back from work, with two kids and a family, and have to go take a class for three to four hours a night, for you know 15 weeks, two days a week\u2026,\u201d said Stuyvesant Fire Company Chief Steve Montie. \u201cIt\u2019s just not feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n In Albany Wednesday, there was a call for lawmakers to create new incentives to help recruit and retain members.<\/p>\n Fire officials from across the state gathered at the Capitol warning that the shortage is leading to serious consequences for public safety.<\/p>\n \u201cSimple truth is we can no longer be confident that a fire truck or ambulance will arrive as quickly as the public expects or deserves when someone calls 911 in several of our communities,\u201d said Virgil Fire District Fire Commissioner, David Denniston.<\/p>\n Related: Fort Johnson Volunteer Fire Company closed at the end of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Officials\u00a0are\u00a0urging\u00a0state\u00a0lawmakers\u00a0to\u00a0pass\u00a0legislation\u00a0that\u00a0would\u00a0allow\u00a0fire\u00a0districts\u00a0to\u00a0offer compensation\u00a0for\u00a0mandatory\u00a0on\u00a0duty\u00a0staffing\u00a0at\u00a0firehouses,\u00a0saying\u00a0that\u00a0financial\u00a0incentives\u00a0could\u00a0help\u00a0ease\u00a0the\u00a0burden\u00a0on\u00a0working\u00a0families\u00a0and\u00a0make\u00a0volunteering\u00a0more\u00a0realistic.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0not\u00a0everyone\u00a0is\u00a0for\u00a0this\u00a0proposal.\u00a0The\u00a0New\u00a0York\u00a0State\u00a0Professional\u00a0Firefighters\u00a0Association\u00a0says the\u00a0most\u00a0effective\u00a0way\u00a0to\u00a0ensure\u00a0adequate\u00a0fire\u00a0protection\u00a0is\u00a0through\u00a0fully\u00a0staffed\u00a0trained\u00a0departments available\u00a024-7.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0group\u00a0supports\u00a0a\u00a0transition\u00a0to\u00a0combination\u00a0departments,\u00a0staffed\u00a0by\u00a0both\u00a0paid\u00a0firefighters\u00a0and\u00a0trained\u00a0volunteers,\u00a0calling\u00a0it\u00a0a\u00a0proven\u00a0model\u00a0across\u00a0New\u00a0York\u00a0State.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Volunteer Firefighters<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Stuyvesant<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Firefighters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volunteer fire departments facing shortage of volunteers, ask state to act. STUYVESANT, N.Y. (WNYT)- A shortage of volunteer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[195,9,11,10,63739,42660],"class_list":["post-153390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-firefighters","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-stuyvesant","tag-volunteer-firefighters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}