South metro cities raise stipends to attract firefighters

A shortage of volunteer firefighters across the Twin Cities metro area has some suburbs raising on-call stipends to help attract new candidates.

Communities statewide have had difficulty retaining and recruiting non-career firefighters over the past several years, largely due to an increased demand on volunteers' time and more stringent training requirements. South metro cities such as Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville and Eagan have raised compensation, which widely varies by department, in hopes of bolstering their service staff.

"It's getting a little bit harder to find people who understand what the demands of the job are, and narrow it down to have good quality candidates that are here for the long haul and not just here to help occasionally," said Judy Thill, Inver Grove Heights fire chief and regional director for Minnesota State Fire Department Association. "[The time demand] really weighs on people's family and personal lives."

Volunteers are compensated per hour or service call, depending on the city. Rates range from Eagan's $16 per call — no matter how long it takes — to Lakeville's $12 per hour.

Beyond emergency calls, volunteer firefighters are responsible for attending numerous training sessions, fundraising and community service events. It's not unusual for non-career firefighters to spend more than 100 hours a month on the job, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

In Inver Grove Heights, volunteers are required to respond to a minimum of 130 calls a year, which can really take a toll, Thill said.

Training requirements have also risen considerably for firefighters since Sept. 11, 2001, putting volunteers at the same certification level as professional responders. Suburban fire chiefs say the change benefits departments by increasing effectiveness, but deters recruits because of the additional training time.

The city wants to maintain 100 volunteers, but there are 81 divided among five stations.

"There have been times where the pager goes off, and we don't have enough firefighters to respond at one station so we have to page another one," Scott said. "At what point is it not acceptable to our customers, which is the community?"

Exit surveys completed by former volunteers confirmed that time demands were the most common reason for leaving, he said. Pay was rarely, if ever, a factor.

Lakeville has struggled to retain volunteers past the two-year probationary period because of the intensive time commitment, despite management's best efforts to make that clear upfront. Applicants are also down by about 50 percent.

"When we recruit firefighters we tell them that your family is always first, your job second; we ask to be third or fourth depending on what's happening in your life," Lakeville Fire Chief Mike Meyer said. "It's hard to fathom how much time it does take."

A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant also allowed the city to hire four firefighters and a captain full-time to man the weekday duty crew, which has cut response times in half.

Minnesota has the second highest percentage of registered volunteer and mostly volunteer fire departments in the nation at 97 percent, according to a 2014 report from Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association. Those volunteers also save the state an estimated $742 million annually.

Cost is a major reason departments throughout the state wish to retain their volunteer status as long as possible. If Eagan tried to switch, it would cost the city an additional $3 million a year.

"Cities would have to look at cutting other services to pay for that," Scott said.