Crime & Safety

Fire Department Chosen for Study

Research will create profiles of volunteers and community and seek to create a model for recruiting and retaining firefighters.

The Town of Farmington Fire Department has been selected as one of 30 departments in the state to participate in a federally funded year-long study that seeks to understand why firefighters volunteer and as a result, how to recruit and retain them.

The Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association, which is conducting the study, aims to develop a model for recruiting and retaining volunteers at adequate staffing levels for fire and emergency response. Only one such study has been conducted in the country, Harper said, and that was in Virginia.

Though the Farmington Fire Department currently has a full roster of dedicated volunteers across the five stations through which it serves the town, it is always recruiting, said Mary-Ellen Harper, director of fire and rescue services. In addition, the demand is increasing. The volume of calls the fire department responds to has increased by 58 percent over the past 10 years, Harper said.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I can’t ask people to donate 58 percent more time. One of our goals is to try to get a broader base of volunteers rather than to hire more people full time,” she said.

The town operates as a combination fire department, meaning that it employs eight firefighters to be on duty weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., when most volunteers are at work. In addition, the town has 147 volunteers who serve the town whenever they are able – day and night, weekends and weekdays.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Despite the increase in calls, the department has been able to hold steady the number of paid firefighters by recruiting very involved volunteers.

“We’ve had some hard years in the past but the tide has turned. We have people coming in the door who want to go to training, who are willing to go to calls and willing to learn,” Harper said.

The Farmington Fire Department has recently spent every dollar the town has budgeted for volunteer firefighter training. But, Harper said, a full roster now, does not guarantee a secure future.

“We try to recruit 10 percent of the department every year. We don’t want to end up with a whole new department; we want to have people with experience,” she said.

In addition to recruiting, Harper said she’s also interested in learning what leads volunteers to stay and what type of people are likely to stay – factors the study looks to identify.

To become a firefighter able to respond to calls, volunteers must apply, go through a screening process, a physical and a drug test. The department then provides them with turnout gear and a pager. Still, a volunteer is not able to help on a call until they’ve gotten certified through a six-month training course.

“We want to recruit and know how do we keep them here — that’s what I’m interested in. Once I’ve put that time and money into you to be a firefighter, I really need a couple of years from you to make it worth the investment,” Harper said.

A Geographic Information Segmentation team will be gathering and mapping statistical data, a professor from George Washington University will be overseeing the process and the Fire Chief’s Association will also provide staff.

The study will use technology to map the community’s characteristics and create profiles of both firefighters’ demographics and that of the town.

The study will look at Farmington’s volunteers in a way Harper hasn’t done yet, pinpointing basic demographic information like age and gender but also where volunteers eat, shop and what type of jobs they do. Then it will ask if the makeup of the fire department matches that of the community and if not, why?

“It’s a new opportunity for us,” Harper said. “This information hasn’t been used in this way before and to apply it to volunteer firefighting is a new science. It’s exciting to be a part of that.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.