If you are young and live in a small community, chances are your fire department wants you to volunteer.
Volunteer fire departments across the state are looking for younger volunteers
Fire chiefs say more young people are migrating from rural areas
Departments are planning to recruit younger generation more intensely
Volunteer fire departments from across the state addressed their glaring need for more volunteers at a summit Saturday. The departments are dealing with an older generation of firefighters at or near retirement, but no young volunteers are waiting in the wings to replace them.
"They expect someone else to do it," says Chief Paul Powell of the Salem Volunteer Fire Department. "You pick up the phone and call 911 and hope that someone is going to answer, but no one is willing to be the ones to answer."
Nearly three out of every four North Carolina firefighters are volunteers.