Recruiting and retaining its volunteer corps

Recruiting and retaining members has become more difficult for volunteer fire departments in the last several years for a variety of reasons.

In an effort to bolster their manpower the Fireman’s Association of New York State (FASNY) held its first-ever statewide recruitment drive earlier in April.

Firehouses across the state held open houses on the weekend of April 9-10, to attract new volunteers to the fire departments. FASNY President David Jacobowitz said it was an idea that was discussed for a few years and this year it was implemented.

“In the forty years I have served in the fire service I know the problem and we have talked about the problem,” said Jacobowitz, who noted that the program was tried out in upstate Ononodaga County and it proved successful.

Upstate the issue is decreased population in certain areas, while here on Long Island the problems range from too many pulls on people’s time, including having to work multiple jobs, to the way that volunteers once were brought into the fire department — through family and friends — has begun to wane.

At the Woodmere Fire Department, Chief Richard Jankosky said he was aware of the FASNY event, but noted that his department’s doors are always open and as they are always seeking new members they recruit throughout the year.

“We are constantly recruiting — three-hundred and sixty five days a year — our ways are paying off, but we are open to new suggestions,” said Jankosky, who added that his department is approximately 100 members strong and within the past month and a half, the chief said that three new people had applied to join the department.

In addition, to their open-door policy, Jankosky said that the department’s annual subscription drive letter includes a call for recruitment and retention. The department also holds a big open house event in October, which is Fire Prevention Month.

“We do okay through friendships,” he said noting that once the fire department was a father-to-son organization, but that has changed as more people have moved.

Jankosky said that the junior firefighter program that introduces teenagers beginning at 14 to the volunteer firefighting corps has “helped immensely” in bringing in new members.

The issues are similar in Inwood, for Chief Richard Magliaro, who as a 20-year veteran of the volunteer firefighting service said that though his department didn’t participate in the statewide event they also recruit throughout the year.

“Normally in the month of February we [visit] schools,” said Magliaro, who said noted there is “School Safety Day” at Number Four School, when flyers about the department are sent home to the parents and the firefighters attend Lawrence High School’s job fair to recruit new members.

“We have an open-door policy and if you meet the criteria you’re in,” said Magliaro, who noted the generational pull of the fire service as his two brothers, his father and an uncle are members or have been part of the department that currently has a little less than 80 active members and has 35 core members who are around 24-hours a day, the chief said.

“The idea is good,” Magliaro said about FASNY’s recruitment drive that focused on smaller, upstate departments, but he added, “That here in Nassau and Suffolk we do our own thing, use the junior program to get a few guys, but the best thing is word-of-mouth to recruit.”