Bellmore-Merrick Fire depts look to recruit, retain

“Looking at the long term, one of our biggest concerns is longevity,” said Brendan Narrell, second assistant chief of the North Bellmore Fire Department.

The department will join North Merrick and hundreds of others from across the state at the seventh annual RecruitNY event on Friday in Garden City. The event is put on by the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York and intended to “clang the bell” for new recruits at a time when volunteer first-responder numbers are down.

FASNY partially attributes a downturn in volunteer recruitment on Long Island and across the country to family and financial responsibilities, volunteers who are aging and others who are moving out of state.

“As people get older, people move away and it’s getting more and more costly to live on Long island, we’re just concerned we won’t have too many bodies to fill the department in the future,” Narrell said.

According to Robert Leonard, a volunteer firefighter and recruiter in Syosset and FASNY’s chairman of public relations, the economic climate on Long Island is pushing many departments to look to middle-aged volunteers with community roots rather than the traditional 18- to 20-something pool.

“It can seem like more of a revolving door with the younger volunteers,” said Leonard. “Housing is a major issue. Cost is a major issue. We are facing the fact that we want 18-year-olds to join, but we’ll probably lose them at 22 or 23 … they tend to move away unless they stay in their parents’ house, and it’s a very tough nut to crack. We need to be looking at middle-aged people, too, with ties to the community, who have bought a house.”

The RecruitNY event, now in its seventh year, is part of an intensified year-round recruiting strategy being adopted by many departments. According to Leonard, recruiting efforts are common in October, and FASNY decided to similarly “bookend” the winter season with the spring event.

“We make it easy for departments — all they have to do is open their doors and welcome people,” he said. “And we remind departments that even if people don’t show up that day, you’ve made it known in your community that you need the volunteers.”

At the event, to be held on April 28 at the Nassau County Firefighters Museum and Education Center, area firefighters will be in uniform representing their departments, with fire trucks and apparatus on hand.

On Saturday and Sunday, participating departments will open their doors and fire truck bays in open house-style events. They will conduct tours of their firehouses, let visitors try on gear, talk about the rewards and responsibilities of being a volunteer firefighter and answer questions.

Other Nassau County departments planning to take part include East Rockaway, Freeport, Garden City, Long Beach, Oceanside, South Farmingdale, Syosset and Woodmere.

Steven Klein, first vice president of FASNY, is a 50-year member of the Oceanside department and an ex-chief there. “RecruitNY has proven a success in past years,” he said, “and is a key initiative to bolster membership numbers so fire departments can continue to provide the optimum level of protection to our local residents.”

“We perform a vital service to the community, we save the taxpayers a lot of money and it’s a great way to give back to the community,” said North Bellmore’s Narell. “It’s a way for us to gently remind people that we’re here and we’re looking for anybody. Everybody has a place in the volunteer fire service.”