(upbeat music) - Nebraska's volunteer fire departments are facing mounting issues in a time when people need emergency responders more than ever.

Things like a lack of new recruits and not enough funding are adding to the pressure departments already face.

But what can be done to help?

We will discuss that tonight on "Speaking of Nebraska."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Thanks for joining us on "Speaking of Nebraska."

I'm Nebraska Public Media News Director Jay Omar.

Over the next half hour, we will discuss the challenges volunteer fire departments across the state face as they try to keep up with growing demands.

These volunteer firefighters are the only emergency services available in most rural communities.

But according to a Nebraska Public Media Survey, recruiting and retaining these volunteers has become more challenging for volunteer fire departments in recent years.

Nebraska Public Media's Brian Beach has this story.

(engine rumbling) - [Brian] Talk to any number of volunteer firefighters in Nebraska and you'll quickly pick up on a few trends.

There's a clear passion for the communities they serve and a strong belief in the value of volunteering.

Many of them are second or third generation firefighters and plan to pass on the calling to their children, all while pursuing other full-time jobs.

Like many volunteer firefighters, Troy Shoemaker became involved because of his father.

- What gave me my start?

What gave me the bug?

That was my dad.

My dad was a lifetime member of Alliance.

When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I decided I wanted to drive the big, red firetruck.

- [Brian] Today, Shoemaker serves as the fire chief in his hometown of Alliance and encourages other Nebraskans to step into roles as volunteer first responders.

- [Troy] It's the best job, you know, when you have the ability to affect somebody's life in the positive.

It doesn't get any better than that.

- [Brian] But in many departments across the state, there aren't nearly enough volunteers to keep up with the demands for service.

Longtime members are aging out and new ones aren't taking their place at the same rate.

Bill Montz has been involved as a first responder in Southeast Nebraska for more than 40 years.

- To be on a volunteer fire department, you have to have the same training that a paid firefighter would have.

So in other words, there's a lot of commitment not only to responding to the call.

You know, your weekly maintenance or your monthly maintenance of your equipment, your apparatus, that kind of thing.

- [Brian] Nebraska Public Media Survey found that 8 in 10 respondents said time commitment is the number one reason people don't join volunteer departments.

And even once the training is complete, getting enough volunteers to attend a call during the workday is another challenge.

- [Bill] A lot of people work during the day, you know?

So, when the call goes out, say 10 O'clock in the morning on a weekday.

Who's gonna respond?

That's a common concern.

- [Brian] To help, the Gering Volunteer Fire Department in the Nebraska Panhandle relies on high schoolers.

Darrell Vance, who has been a part of the Gering Volunteer Fire Department for 43 years says the department has started a cadet program in the local high school where students practice a variety of firefighting skills.

- They learn how to run the Jaws of Life.

They learn to put up ladders.

They work on all kinds of different skills.

- [Brian] After their training is complete, Vance says the students are able to join the departments.

- We actually let 'em go in and fight fires and everything with us after they get their task books signed off.

- [Brian] But even with the help, the Gering Department is still hungry for volunteers.

The town of 8,000 only has 45 members.

And Vance says the biggest challenge in the department is keeping them on board.

- [Darrell] A lot of 'em, they want in, they get in.

They work maybe four years, five years, and then they just, they lose their interest.

- 59% of survey respondents said the quality of service from their local department will decrease if current trends in recruiting and retaining volunteers continues.

But there is some good news.

Nearly 60% Of respondents said their community fully supports their volunteer fire and rescue services.

While only 4% said their department lacks community support.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Joining me now is Brandi Ehler, the fire chief for the Minatare Melbeta Volunteer Fire Department.

She's been with the department for 10 years.

Thanks so much for joining me today.

Today, I would like to discuss- -- Thank you for having me.

-- Of course, yes.

Today, I would like to discuss some of the difficulties that are impacting your department.

And we will kind of just start with that general question of what are some of the challenges impacting your department and how has that changed in recent years?

- Over the last couple of years, we've noticed a lot of decline in members in our department.

We've also found out that as expenses are rising, we don't have the income that we had before.

So, we're starting to have a real struggle with involvement with members on our department and getting people to join.

I mean, numbers have been down across the state, I know.

And I know we're one of 'em that are struggling.

- Our survey results showed that recruiting volunteers to come aboard fire departments has been a real struggle.

And can you talk a little bit about that and why recruiting has become so difficult?

- Well, I think a lot of it has to do is people are so busy in their own family and their own lives that to be able to go out and give the time to volunteer, people just don't have that time anymore.

Also, we do EMS too and the price for people to take time out of their schedule and pay the price to take a class to become an EMT, it's not there anymore.

- Talking a little bit about your personal experience, what led you to decide to join the volunteer fire department and what has your experience been like over the past decade?

- About 10 years ago, my family suffered from a house fire and we lost everything.

We have an amazing community that stepped up and helped us in every way that they could.

And I just felt like the least I could do to give back to my community was to join the fire department and help other families out.

I've had a great experience.

In fact, both my daughters are on the department now and I enjoy being there for our department.

I enjoy what I do.

There is some hard times with it, but for the most part it's just knowing that you're able to be there to help those people.

- Can you tell us a little bit about the size of your department and how many members you have, and how many active members you have when an emergency would arise?

- We have about 27 members in our department.

Out of those members, we have seven EMTs and one paramedic.

We serve about 316 square miles in our district.

We actually serve Minatare and Melbeta which are two different towns.

And then for the EMS side, we also serve McGrew.

So, we have three towns within our EMS side.

We probably run about an average of 280 calls a year.

We stay pretty busy for as small of a department as we are.

We've been pretty fortunate with our community support and being able to get a little bit more funding here and there.

I know it's been a struggle for a lot of people, but we have that, a lot of support with our community.

- And that leads me right into my next question about what does funding look like from your department?

Both where it comes from and kind of how it's shaping up moving forward?

- We do receive some funding from taxpayers, but majority of our funding comes from, we do what we call fund drive every year.

And we send out flyers that gives us a little bit of information out to our community about our department.

And then, they also have the opportunity to send the envelope back for a donation.

We go off of a lot of donations.

We also do about three fundraisers a year.

We have our Chili Feed.

We also do a fireworks show in July.

And then, usually in December we have a parade of lights and then we have hot chocolate.

And Cookies with Santa back at our hall.

Kind of gets our community a little involved with our department too, but also gives them an opportunity to to see what we are doing and why we need their donations.

- I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

And a couple questions to close it out is what type of help you would like to see come to volunteer fire departments around the state?

And we'll ask, the question is, what would you like to see from the state of Nebraska to help departments like yours?

- My biggest thing I would like to see is a way to bring the expense down of, or maybe the expectations and requirements I should say, to bring them down for, to get EMTs.

That's our biggest thing is trying to get EMTs on right now.

Majority of our calls come from our EMS side.

And so, it's hard for people to work a full-time job because we are volunteer and have their family and be able to set, you know, a whole semester out to go to school to become an EMT.

And so, we really struggle with getting EMTs onto our department.

- From a community perspective, what can a community member do to help support your department?

- I would say with our community, the biggest thing I could say is if they've got some time in their schedule, come down and join, help out.

There's so much different things that people can do on a department, not necessarily be in an EMT or being a firefighter.

There's a list.

I mean, there's times we're out on a fire for days, you know?

It'd just be nice to have people to be, be able to bring food out and just to be there to support our members on our department.

- Brandi, I really appreciate your time.

Thanks for coming on the show and talking about this important issue.

- Thank you.

- Coming up.

We'll hear from Nebraska Public Media News Reporter Aaron Bonderson, about two fire departments that are trying to increase diversity within their ranks.

But first, we reached out to the Nebraska State Volunteer Firefighters Association to get their take on the situation.

In a statement, the association said in part, "The cost savings to Nebraska's taxpayers in using volunteer labor would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replace if the volunteer pool of providers continues to shrink.

Yet, Nebraska's volunteer first responders continue to serve in their communities at a fraction of the cost of paid first responders.

Additionally, potential candidates to serve as volunteer emergency medical technicians, at times, face difficulties in meeting the rigors of the educational requirements placed upon them in order to become certified.

The NSVFA looks to continue to lead the way so that Nebraskans never learn the answer to the question: What if no one answered the call?"

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - More than 60% of volunteer fire departments in Nebraska say recruiting is a challenge, according to a Nebraska Public Media Survey.

Recruitment is about more than just getting people to join the ranks, but also making departments reflective of the communities they serve.

But how are efforts to increase diversity going?

I traveled to two different communities to find out.

(engine rumbling) Schuyler, like all fire departments train to keep firefighters and EMTs sharp.

About 6,500 people live in Schuyler.

More than 70% of whom identify as Hispanic according to the latest census data.

Four firefighters in town are Hispanic.

Rafael Bello Portillo has been at the department for two years.

That's in addition to working at UPS, a local motel and taking care of his five year old daughter.

When he was a kid, he was in awe of Schuyler's firefighters.

He's wanted to be one ever since.

- We do so much that we forget to give back and do good for ourselves, and I wanted to change that.

And I wanted to give back and do something good for me and my community, so it's kinda, it's like a full circle kind of moment, you know?

- [Aaron] Bello Portillo, who's fluent in Spanish says having firefighters and EMTs who speak Spanish can be the difference between life and death, especially in a diverse town like Schuyler.

He says the department is getting better at communicating with the Spanish-speaking population.

- [Rafael] People in the force who don't speak proper Spanish, we teach 'em how to communicate with, you know, other citizens here that are more Spanish-speaking.

So, that's awesome seeing them interact, whether like I said, whether it's an emergency where we're acting quick, we need to work together, and they're able to communicate.

That's what I see the growth in there.

- [Aaron] Fire Chief Brad Sock says they've tried to improve recruitment of the Hispanic population and other diverse groups.

- [Brad] I can't say we haven't tried and we have thrown a lot of rocks out there just to grab and try and it just, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.

- [Aaron] Even though there are 30 firefighters in the department, Sock says only a handful routinely respond to calls.

Sock says recruiting numbers need to improve or Schuylar could lose vital response time.

Another town in a similar position is South Sioux City.

Their new fire chief was hired with the goal of making the department more diverse.

- We're out and we're promoting diversity of all aspects.

South Sioux City is a very, very diverse community here.

- [Aaron] With the population north of 14,000, South Sioux City continues to grow.

A little less than half of South Sioux's population is Hispanic.

Koopman says he wants to recruit more women and that the department has already reached out to a growing Somali population.

- [Brad] Right now we're, I would say we're pretty diverse for the main cultures that we have in the South Sioux City area here, but we can always do better.

- [Aaron] South Sioux has a combination fire department with paid staff and volunteers.

There are eight paid firefighters and a few full-time volunteers.

Just two members of the South Sioux Department speak Spanish.

Koopman wants to build interest in volunteering in the Spanish-speaking, Somali, and all other communities in town.

In addition to communication, volunteer Xavier Robles says having a diverse department helps with recruitment and improves connections in the community.

- You know, kind of reflecting the community and the community here in South Sioux being able to see that, you know?

It is a diverse department.

It's something that they can, you know, if they wanna volunteer or apply full-time, it's something that they can see that they can do that.

- [Aaron] Back in Schuyler, Bello Portillo says young people notice the department's demographics and to look at current firefighters to see that it is an option for their future.

- [Rafael] Honestly, I think it's really awesome 'cause kids come up to me and they say, whether I'm doing something, they're like, "Hey, you're the firefighter guy!"

or "You're this guy."

And I was like, "Yeah."

And it's nice seeing little kids that look like me, look like my siblings or us growing up are just coming up to us and be like, what do you do?

Can I, you know, how do you do it?

What'd you do to get in the force?

- [Aaron] Bello Portillo says that someday he hopes he will be the first full Mexican fire chief in Schuyler.

Until then, these departments and others will aim to increase diversity, and overall recruiting numbers to meet the needs and demands of their communities.

Aaron Bonderson, Nebraska Public Media News.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I am joined now by Nathan Erickson, a nationally registered EMT located in Central City.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Nathan.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the challenges facing EMTs across the state and what you're seeing, and I'll kind of just kick it off with that question about how you're kind of viewing and what you're seeing when it comes to shortages of EMTs and how that's kind of impacting the work that you do.

(paper rustling) - So yes, I'm seeing with kind of the whole nationwide shortage of EMTs and especially here in Nebraska.

Rural Nebraska, there's not as many younger of the generations that have stuck around.

So, a lot of those that have left the area have taken that volunteerism with them.

So, we're seeing an issue with just the generations coming up wanting to volunteer.

Nobody really wants to come out and help and just take time out of their day to go and help somebody in need.

So, we're seeing a lot of that and we're seeing a lot of the older generation.

They're just slowly wanting to be done with it and there's really no fill from anywhere.

And it's just kinda, we're just running short and it's taxing all of us.

- And that definitely leads to some challenges.

And how have you seen those challenges kind of adapt over your years of doing what you do?

- So, a lot of those challenges.

We, in Central City, we typically try to run with three people on an ambulance call.

So, we're only leaving with two people rather than the three we would like to have just 'cause we're so short of people.

It just, it's difficult and we just have to adapt.

And if we need extra help, we have neighboring departments to rely on.

So, yeah.

- And Nathan, can you talk us through a little bit about the training that goes into becoming an EMT?

- Yeah, so there's several community colleges and programs throughout the state of Nebraska.

I did mine through Central Community College out of Grand Island and Columbus.

They offered, it was I believe, a four month-ish course.

I think we met once a week for about four hours every week.

And we would do like in-class work.

We'd have to get our CPR certification.

We'd have to get BLS, like lifesaving, AED type training.

And then, there was also the actual curriculum involving nationally registered EMT protocols versus Nebraska protocols.

- Nathan, what would you tell somebody who might be around your age who's interested in maybe volunteering their time to be an EMT or a volunteer firefighter?

What would you tell them about that mission and your belief in that mission.

And what would you say to somebody who was interested?

- So, I would start off with, it's not easy.

It takes a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work to be able to do this.

And it's obviously one of those kind of career paths that's not for everyone.

You see some of the worst of worst of humanity.

I mean, car accidents.

I mean, you see absolutely some of the worst.

But then on the other hand, you see absolutely some of the best.

Sometimes there's a chance where you may end up having to deliver a baby in the back of an ambulance.

So, you're not only seeing death, but you're also seeing life.

So, you're kinda able to balance it all out.

And to me, it's very rewarding to be able to see both sides of that and be able to go anywhere in town or whatever and somebody come up and say, "Hey, thanks for what you do.

You do an awful lot and we really appreciate it."

So, it's appreciated that we're appreciated.

- [Jay] Nathan, thanks for your time and thanks for your service to your community.

And I appreciate you being here.

- Yes, not a problem.

Thank you.

- Nebraska Public Media News reached out to Governor Jim Pillen's office and asked about the state's plans to combat the issues we discussed tonight.

And his spokesperson released the following statement.

"Identifying solutions that will ensure prompt and reliable emergency response for Nebraskans is a top priority for Governor Pillen.

The many issues involved are being explored by the governor's policy and research team.

Ultimately, Governor Pillen is going to look towards solutions that reduce impediments for attracting and retaining volunteer responders, while also maintaining the quality of life-saving services in our community."

- [Medic] Every minute that you're waiting is life or death.

(ambulance door slams) (siren wails) - [Narrator] Imagine your home engulfed in flames and the fire truck that pulled up had a crew of two on board.

- I see her.

- Volunteer fire departments can't get enough members.

Some towns could be left of vulnerable and underserved.

- [Firefighter] Nobody wants to volunteer.

You don't get paid.

Why would I do that?

- [Narrator] That's happening.

Just as demand for these services has never been higher.

- [Firefighter] Our volunteer fire departments aren't ready for the world that we live in today.

- [Narrator] Drive across Nebraska and most of the miles you cover are served by volunteer firefighters and emergency medical providers.

- [EMT] Every life matters.

Everybody deserves to have a response when they need it.

- [Narrator] Will they be able to answer the call when you need them the most?

Working Fires.

The Volunteer Firefighter Crisis.

(upbeat music) - I am joined now by Nebraska Public Media Senior Producer Bill Kelly.

Bill has spent roughly the last year working on a documentary titled, "Working Fires: Volunteer Fire Departments in Crisis."

Thanks for joining us, Bill.

- Absolutely.

- So to get us started, can you give us a little bit of an overview about what your project is about?

- We'd done a project a couple of years ago called Small Town Cops, and we got some feedback then that maybe we should be looking at small town volunteer fire departments.

(clears throat) What we didn't really realize, and I think a lot of the state doesn't realize, is there's a real crisis in volunteer fire departments with recruiting members, retaining members.

And the workloads that they have both in fire calls and in emergency medical.

And so, we ended up devoting this time in the past year to traveling to another, a number of different departments around the state and talking with folks about the impact on their departments, and more importantly on their community.

Because there's a real problem with what's happening if you don't have enough volunteers showing up for the fire call, or not enough volunteers showing up if you have a family member has a heart attack or a serious accident.

-[Jay] You kinda touched on a little bit of this, but this was a very extensive reporting project and one that I was lucky to watch you work on so diligently.

What are some of your main takeaways after doing all of that reporting?

- That that issue of recruiting and retaining members, I think most communities don't realize that they have this in their own backyard.

There are 450 volunteer fire departments in the state.

Over like 95% of the land area in the state is covered by volunteer fire departments.

And so, the takeaway is that if this isn't addressed, if people don't step up and volunteer in their own departments, then they're gonna start risking public safety.

We took a poll, a survey of local volunteer fire departments and a number of them said that the vast majority said that public safety in their communities is going to be jeopardized if they don't begin beefing up their own membership.

- Staying in that vein.

Before you started until now, sitting here with me today, what's the biggest surprise that you learned throughout all this?

- We actually, when we started the program, the research, I wasn't gonna spend that much time with emergency medical services.

In many ways that's the bigger problem.

For starters, a majority of the calls for volunteer fire departments are actually medical calls.

Accidents, heart attacks, stroke, all of that.

And at the same time, that is the most difficult section to recruit for because unlike a volunteer firefighter, these have certification and licensing requirements.

These are kind of paramedical professionals who are dealing with these things and it's really tough to get people who are willing to devote the time, the energy, and have the ability to take on that role of emergency medical response.

- So, you talked about this idea kind of stemmed off of Small Town Cops.

But what inspired you to really dive into this topic?

- You know, whenever you visit outside of Omaha and Lincoln, it's so fascinating to see just how committed people are in their own towns and how proud they are of their towns.

At the same time, there's been this disconnect.

Only like there was a national survey done at the state level in Nebraska.

Only something like 30% of people are volunteering for anything anymore.

This has been a huge change in our society and it's ended up having this ripple effect through emergency response, through fire response, and medical response.

And it's at the same time, the folks who have taken on this role, it's even a greater burden on them.

They are having to show up more often at these calls because there are fewer people backing 'em up at any given time.

- We touched on Small Town Cops a little bit and now we're kind of looking into small town emergency rescue personnel.

Are there any through lines in some of the challenges that might be facing those two different groups of people?

- You know, it is different because there's a law enforcement academy and they get trained and the like.

There is no law enforcement academy or fire academy officially required in the state of Nebraska.

They do get training through the State Fire Marshall's Office.

There's training offered by the Nebraska Forest Service.

So, it's interesting that on one hand, there's a paid emergency response within law enforcement.

But it's all a volunteer service within the fire officials.

And I think people in communities across Nebraska need to reflect on that a little bit and realize that they have a role in taking on part of that responsibility.

- The last question for you.

You spent a significant amount of time with people who are volunteering to put their lives on the line.

What is something most people might not know about this group of people who are willing to sign up to do this, to volunteer to run into the fires?

- There's for one thing, it can take a toll.

And there is some effort in the state to provide expanded PTSD, post-traumatic stress syndrome treatment and resources to volunteer firefighters and EMTs.

That has not always been the case.

It's very much something that is handled within departments.

Some departments better than the other.

They talk it out amongst themselves when they have an especially traumatic incident.

And that was very interesting to hear that all of these folks really feel like their fellow department members have their back in most cases.

- Working Fires, the latest from Bill Kelly premieres on Nebraska Public Media this week.

I really look forward to catching it.

(upbeat music) That's all for this season of "Speaking of Nebraska."

Thank you to all our guests who are on the show tonight.

And thank you to all who helped this season, especially those behind the scenes.

I'm Nebraska Public Media News Director Jay Omar.

Have a great night.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music)