DULUTH – Evan Jamar didn't know what his dream job was until his dream came true.
"It's like waking up for Christmas every morning," he said after his first 24-hour shift as a Duluth firefighter last month. "I jumped in not really knowing what I was getting into and never looked back."
The Duluth Fire Department and fire departments across the state are looking for more Evan Jamars.
It wasn't long ago departments were routinely overwhelmed with an abundance of applicants for a few openings. They now need to aggressively promote themselves to fill those vacancies, especially as they seek to diversify their workforce.
"It's really kind of perplexing. I'm not sure why people aren't as interested," said Duluth Fire Chief Shawn Krizaj. "How can you broaden that candidate pool, to have more people take the test and potentially increase the number and diversity of candidates we see?"
In Duluth, openings that used to draw hundreds of applicants now might garner a few dozen people who take the required exam. St. Paul has seen its applicant pool drop from the thousands to the hundreds in recent years as well.
"It's the trend all over," said Chris Parsons, a captain with the St. Paul Fire Department and president of the Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters union. "If you go up to the Iron Range, Hibbing is having a really hard time finding applicants."
Some see the time commitment for firefighting, long considered a noble profession and solid lifelong career, as a deterrent.