(St. Louis Fire Department/Facebook)

By Logan Lehmann

Lack of help

‘It’s bad’: St. Louis fire chief calls for help in firefighter shortage

May 4, 2023 | 5:00 PM

With the ongoing firefighter shortage across the country, one local community is feeling the burn.

The town of St. Louis is sending out an SOS signal as the community and surrounding areas are suffering from a lack of volunteer firemen at the station.

As fire chief James Brake put it, the lack of volunteers is putting the greater community at risk.

“It’s an ongoing problem for every rural fire department,” he explained. “I don’t know how many firefighters I have until I get a call. We don’t even know the availability until an incident happens and it could be something critical. That is stressful from a command perspective, because we need to give the proper care to the people in need when they need it, not when we’re available.”

With only 12 actively on the team in St. Louis, they all have full-time jobs already on top of volunteering at the fire hall, with sometimes only three or four members being available to respond to calls.

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Because of this, Brake said that he’s been reaching out to other communities to lend a hand when needed because they don’t have enough men on standby from their own department.

“We really have to be conscious of how many responders we have for what ever incident it may be,” he said. “I had a fire Friday (April 28) that lasted until two o’clock in the morning and that’s tough, these people were working six hours previously before they got to an eleven-hour fire.”

He mentioned that starting Thursday, the department is doing a recruitment drive in an effort to attract more people to suit up and volunteer with the station.

“We’re a regional department, so we want to enlarge our capabilities of manpower,” Brake said. “It takes a person who’s committed to their community, enjoys the fact that they’re helping others in their worst day, and the ones that do it, they’re the ones who understand that it’s a very honourable (opportunity).”

Although volunteers don’t normally get paid, he added that those who decide to join the team get paid training and also get compensation while on scene.

(St. Louis Fire Department/Submitted)

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann