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West Baton Rouge Fire Department looking for recruits as they face staff shortages seen nationwide
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PORT ALLEN - The West Baton Rouge Fire Department is looking for recruits as they face staff shortage trends seen nationwide.
"Fire departments all over the state of Louisiana are struggling to find people who want to continue the call of this high-intensive labor job," West Baton Rouge Fire Chief Butch Browning said. "It's becoming harder and harder to find people to volunteer in communities."
According to a 2023 report from the U.S. Fire Administration, recruitment and retention are two of the biggest problems fire departments across the nation face.
In 1984, there were 897,750 volunteer firefighters in the country. In 2020, that number decreased to 676,900.
Browning said his department has a couple dozen volunteer firefighters two of which helped to put out a fire in Erwinville on Thursday afternoon.
The department got the call around 1:30 p.m. and the caller said a fire was spotted in the garage. By the time firefighters got there, it had spread to the attic.
"We called for four engines, a squad, and two ambulances out here fighting the fire," Fire Department Chief of Operations Brad Waldrep said. "When you have a fire of this magnitude on a two-story house and you just have a handful of firefighters, a lot more work gets put on them."
No one was injured in the fire.
Browning said it shows the need for a fully staffed department.
"It's about response times. It's about having firefighters and medics in these stations, centralized across our parish, so when the call comes in you get there quickly," Browning said.
The department's nine open positions are paid with benefits, which Browning said should help incentivize people to join the force to help with the staffing issue.
"A firefighter comes in here making $48,000 a year. A firefighter-medic, depending if there is an advanced EMT or paramedic makes up to an incentive of $5,000 a year," Browning said.
The West Baton Rouge Fire Department also said it started running calls for two medic units at the beginning of the year. Browning said he hopes to increase that number to three medic units in the next six months.
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