Volunteer firefighters needed in Niagara

[projekktor id=’23782′]

The town of Fort Erie is looking for a group of selfless volunteers to join the fire department. Fort Erie fire is completely volunteer driven and needs more help.

Fort Erie firefighters respond to about a thousand calls every year. From structure fires to medical emergencies to boat rescues, no emergency is off limits.

Right now they have about 120 trained volunteer firefighters.
“Ideally we should be around 140 and 150 volunteers across town, so our numbers are down 20 to 30 people.” Fire Chief Larry Coplen.

The fire department is looking to fill that gap with new recruits. Volunteers receive about 6 months of paid-training, both in the classroom and hands-on and even though they are volunteers, they still get paid. In Fort Erie they get a stipend for every call they go to which works out to $20 an hour.

In the Niagara area there are only 5 communities that don’t solely rely on volunteer firefighters. Port Colborne, Thorold, Welland and Niagara Falls staff both volunteers and fulltime firefighters but in St.Catharines there are only full-time firefighters.

The Fort Erie fire department is holding open houses on Monday and Thursday next week and anyone interested should just show up.