There is a national shortage of volunteer firefighters, but local fire departments are having a hard time keeping paid-on-call and part time workers on their teams as well. The Holmen Area Fire Department's (HAFD) has started a campaign to hire part-time workers, and full-time workers later on this year.
"Chief Menches is going to get out and pound the pavement and look for folks we desperately need,” HAFD Chief Paul Menches said.
Menches said about 70 percent of the country's firefighter workforce is part-time or volunteer, and 30 percent are full-time. In Holmen, that difference is even bigger.
"Right now we're at 85 percent part-time, 15 percent full-time, and we have to change that,” he said.
That's because, Menches said, standards are changing, requiring part-timers and volunteers to undergo more training, which, with busy lives outside the station, they often don't have time.