What Firefighters Want 2024: A Few Thoughts on Grants and Training

Sometimes its beneficial to look at what organizations and firefighters need in order to be successful. The survey below provides a level of understanding from the firefighter’s perspective. The survey included both full and volunteer departments. Most have degrees. 1% are doctors (Dang! That is about the same with the general population.). Leadership, compensation, and staffing. (Our chief is pretty good and tries hard but there are others I'm sure that are not so great.) Recruitment and retention are important concerns as well. Most departments are leaking firefighters because of culture and the complexity/commitment of training. More or less our retention rate is pretty high. A few young people as well that show up regularly. What Firefighters Want 2024

We might consider...

1. Thinking about training necessity and removing the complexity or extra red tape. For example, I might be able to design a streamlined version in conjunction with a fire expert but who as the time and there is no money? Also, one might look at the total program and know what is needed and what is fluff. Thus, we will live with the complexity.

2. Providing additional resources and benefits to firefighters. Free college/training (which I found up to a certain $), higher compensation and/or perks i.e. cheaper insurance or gym memberships. Maybe even a few more firefighter events and activities. I'm just thinking but there are plenty more when you sort of dig into retention. Keep in mind its not about the money because other studies have shown they are doing this for their community in an ultruistic way.

A Few Thoughts on a Firefighter Training Program

A few thoughts on what I would like to do. First, let me start with grants are hard to get and in some cases you may need to hire a professional to apply to some federal grants. If you’re a large entity that works well but if you are smaller there are way too many hoops to get through. That will likely lock out many smaller departments. The best thing they could do is sort of audit and determine the size of most departments to see if smaller volunteer departments who need the resources the most aren't getting access. You can waste hours chasing nothing.

Beyond that I would like to procure some resources to purchase fire training equipment and share and make accessible to other local departments. Further, to start a local fire awareness training that helps groom people to become firefighters while teaching them skills like leadership and teamwork. That could go well with veterans, seniors in high school, local college, and even other departments who may appreciate the availability of training. It raises the recruitment and caliber of fire skills in the area.

Guess what that takes? Money! Ok...it also takes some time and expertise. However, money is the biggest deturrent. I would say $50K with some current equiptment and facilities would likely cover such a program for a year or if lucky 2 years. The first year would be more expensive because of the equipment (i.e. negative pressure simulators, used, training materials, firefighter turnout gear, VR helmets, CPR certifications, etc.). Subsequent years would be much cheaper if you are dealing with training materials. 

 Got a few corporate bucks to throw around to balance out your tax profile feel free to hit me up. I will point you to a good non-profit fire department.