Hays Fire seeks future recruits and volunteerism

By RORY MOORE

Tiger Media Network

The Hays Fire Department hosted an explorer’s program Sunday at Fire Station No. 3 that included a lecture from first responders and a tour of the fire station. The program was aimed at high school students interested in becoming firefighters or other first responder positions as part of the department’s ongoing efforts to find new recruits.

Deputy Fire Chief Shane Preston led the program to engage with its young attendees and educate them about what it takes to be a firefighter and all the hoops to jump through when training.

“The main goal of this program is to get the youth interested in first responders and what we do,” he said. “Hopefully, we get to keep them and bring them on as firefighters. That’s the end goal, but if they choose not to go into firefighting, they have the opportunity to learn about EMS or law enforcement or something else of the services that we provide, and that’s really the main thing.  It’s just to educate them.”

Many of the youth involved with the program are usually introduced to emergency services by family members who have worked in these positions themselves or are encouraged to do so by others.

“Some of them are just kind of coming in because their parents said, ‘Here’s something you’re going to do. Here’s an activity you’re gonna do to get out of the house.’ So, we’ll take them, and we’ll teach them a bunch of stuff, too,” Preston said. “Hopefully, we get a fire built in them if that’s what they wanna do.”

Over the years, many fire departments around the country have faced a shortage of recruits caused by the lack of interest in firefighting, and this program was created to address the Hays Fire Department’s situation with these issues.

“We’ve been doing a lot of job openings and volunteer spots,” Preston said. “We try to do a lot of advertising. Sometimes, we’re not very successful with that, but we do word of mouth. We try to work with people and other organizations in the community to see if they know somebody that might be interested.  A lot of people don’t know that [the] Hays Fire Department has a volunteer program, and that’s something we’re working to change by getting that out there more.”

Preston believes that hosting this program benefits the community by incentivizing people to become more engaged in helping their peers.

“I think one of the things that has changed over time is the lack of volunteerism in communities, not just Hays, but also smaller towns,” he said. “Not as many people are getting involved in their communities locally, and this is a way to help that by keeping that interest alive.”