The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health has produced a statewide report revealing that fire departments across Wisconsin, especially in rural areas, are facing serious challenges. The problems are threatening their ability to respond to emergencies.
The Reliability of Wisconsin’s Fire Service report, based on contributions from 418 Fire Chiefs (representing 52 percent of the departments statewide), highlights a growing crisis in staffing, funding, and training that could impact public safety if not addressed.
One Fire Chief warns, “We have gotten by for far too long and adapted to the staffing shortage over the years. We routinely take chances and put lives in jeopardy because that’s what we have been forced to do.”
Another urges, “The Wisconsin fire service is in jeopardy. Without dramatic increases in funding and support, it is not sustainable. Departments will continue to go extinct, and communities will be underserved.”
Key Findings:
- 85% of rural Fire Departments operate entirely with volunteers.
- Over 80% of firefighters receive little or no monetary compensation.
- 62% of departments are worried they will be unable to adequately staff their first due apparatuses in the next year.
- 49% reported responding to building alarm calls with fewer than the required four firefighters in the past year.
- 34% lack sufficient funding to pay their projected expenses in 2024.
“This study demonstrates that the Wisconsin Fire Service is experiencing similar challenges with reliability and sustainability as shown in our 2023 Ambulance Reliability study for Emergency Medical Services,” explains EMS Outreach Program Manager James Small. “Many agencies, particularly in rural areas, are unable to consistently provide adequate response. I see these kinds of struggles every day in my work with municipalities to develop a sustainable EMS response, and experienced them first-hand in my decade as a municipal Fire Chief previously.”
Recommendations from Fire Chiefs Include:
- Regionalize or consolidate Fire Departments to merge staff, budgets, and resources.
- Offer tax incentives to support firefighter recruitment and retention.
- Expand access to training, especially in rural areas.
- Allow more flexible funding mechanisms for local governments.
“Solving these deficiencies will require elected leaders to prioritize support for Wisconsin’s emergency responders,” Small says. “Municipalities are stretched too thin to address these kinds of needs.”
The Wisconsin legislature has come through before for EMS, and has implemented changes to help local governments improve EMS capacity. A similar prioritization is needed to sustain Wisconsin’s fire service, says the Office of Rural Health.
