The Dolores Fire Protection District relies on volunteers to respond to calls across the 366 square miles it serves, and there’s no cap on the number of volunteers they’ll accept.
The district primarily recruits people through word of mouth.
When public relations specialist Tiffany Cross joined the team, she bolstered its online ads, mostly on Facebook, and even ran one on television.
“I don’t think we had a single person come out of that,” Cross said.
Right now, there’s about 20 staff total. Fourteen are full-time and the rest serve part-time.
“We’ve had a few times that we’ve had the pagers go off, and we’ve had nobody available to respond, and that’s a scary thought,” said District Deputy Fire Chief Kim Jones.
“What if it was you and your family and you called 911 and there’s nobody to come?”
To help solve the recruitment problem, the fire district’s board has talked about switching from volunteer to salary, a move they cannot afford right now, Jones said.
The switch would take years and copious amounts of research. Plus, the district doesn’t have high enough call volumes – yet.
“I believe, personally, that it’s going to have to happen,” said Jones. “It’s inevitable at some point. If the call volume keeps climbing, it’s just going to be too much for volunteers.”
From March to May this year, DFPD responded to 111 calls.
“There’s a lot of different things to cover: We cover motor vehicle accidents, medical calls, we help with search and rescue if needed. We do all the things,” Jones said.
The problem they’re running into stems from it being volunteer only. DFPD’s members work other paid jobs during the day, so when people call the fire department, the volunteers are at work.
Plus, job opportunities in Dolores are limited, so most work out of town, Jones said.
“Even if their employers were to allow them to run on calls, they’re so far away working elsewhere that they can’t exactly make it to the calls,” Jones said.
Ideally, DFPD would start by bringing on one or two certified, Fire 1 personnel to work the day shift – 8 to 5 p.m., or 8 to 8 p.m. – and have volunteers fill in the gaps, Jones said.
“That way it’s guaranteed we’d have someone here to respond,” she said.
Jones emphasized that a lot of people can’t afford to work and not get paid, and a lot of them already juggle more than one job.
“It is a crisis that is hitting all over the United States, in many, many volunteer and paid departments,” Jones said.
Nationwide, in 2019, 30% of Americans volunteered with an organization; in 2021, the number dropped to 23.2%, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps.
Colorado saw the largest decline – 16% – in volunteerism of any state, having dropped from 42.2% in 2019 to 26.2% in 2021.
“Volunteering full time – it’s a lot,” said Jones. “We have the same trainings and the same qualifications that all the other departments, even the paid departments have to have, only we are doing it on our voluntary time.”
Full-time firefighters – volunteer or otherwise – must be certified as Firefighter 1 and Emergency Medical Responder. The Montezuma County Chiefs Association typically has an annual class so folks can be Firefighter 1 certified for free.
Last year, the association didn’t have the class because not enough people signed up for it, Jones said.
Hence, the desire to switch from volunteer to paid, a move that requires a lot of time and money: It wouldn’t happen overnight, Jones said.
“It’s going to take years of researching and finding the best way to do it,” Jones said.
But it’s not entirely inconceivable.
In the fall 2008, Cortez Fire Protection District hired its first paid fire chief, Don Eberly. Shortly after, it hired its first part-time paid firefighters.
“It started out in the daytime, 7 to 6 or 8 to 5, whatever we could do because the other three they hired with me also had full-time jobs. This was our part-time gig, and we would come in as much as we could to help out,” said Cory Elliott, battalion chief of operations at CFPD and one of its first part-time hires.
With the change came pushback.
Elliott called it “growing pains” and attributed the community’s grievances to the district having been volunteer for so long, ever since it became a formal fire department in 1911.
The pushback primarily came from people who didn’t think CFPD needed full-time staff. But as the area – and call volumes – grew, the move became necessary, Elliott said.
Last year, CFPD made 3,743 runs.
“I don’t think there’s any way that a strictly volunteer organization could thrive, especially with that being volunteer. People have to leave home and work four or five or six times a day,” said Elliott. “It’s not feasible anymore.”
And as the area continues to grow, it’s something Dolores Fire Protection District is discussing.
“It’s the growing pains,” said Elliott. “Volunteerism – it’s great. When I first started in 2000 (at Lewis Arriola) it was a different environment and the call volume wasn’t anywhere near what it is now. … Over time, with the population growing and also aging, call volumes have increased drastically.”
Paid or not, Jones and the rest of DFPD are extremely grateful for the volunteers.
“I will never stop the volunteerism. That is, like I said, what made this fire department here. Those people that’ve built that take a lot of pride in what they’ve done,” Jones said.
“It comes from the heart for sure.”
If you’re interested in volunteering, call (970) 882-4096 or visit the station or its website.
There’s opportunities for full- or part-time workers, as well as auxiliary, which does things like arranges meals for the firefighters or babysits.
