The Harrisburg-Carlisle area has the third-fewest occupational firefighters per capita of any metro region in the United States, according to a new ranking based on government data.
The ranking developed by security information website ASecureLife compared 2018 census population data and federal employment statistics. It found that there are only 120 occupational firefighters in the region, or one out of every 4,788 people.
That figure does not include volunteers, which populate the bulk of Pennsylvania's fire departments. Pennsylvania has nearly 1,800 fire companies, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. They tend to be smaller than consolidated firefighting forces elsewhere and therefore often lack the resources to hire paid firefighters. Frederick County, Maryland, by contrast, has 450 paid firefighters at the county level that work with the volunteers at local, independent fire companies.