Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided to Wisconsin Newspaper Association members by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
With fewer volunteers and increasing calls for service, fire departments in Wisconsin have opted to increase their ranks of paid staff positions. A new Wisconsin Policy Forum report finds that data bear out the message that fire chiefs and medical directors have been sharing for years — the volunteer service model that largely defined emergency responses for over a century is failing.
Volunteer fire departments in Wisconsin have lost over 930 positions since 2020, a 5.5% decline. The declining volunteer levels are straining the emergency response capabilities of many agencies, with many struggling — or unable — to maintain the staffing needed to respond to calls twenty-four hours a day.
Meanwhile, call volumes have risen. Many agencies have responded by hiring more paid staff, as 488 full- and part-time paid fire department positions were added across the state since 2020 — a 10.4% increase.
Our latest research examines the consequences of these statewide trends, drawing upon our extensive body of research to offer shared challenges and solutions. Since 2012, the Forum examined 84 fire and EMS providers in Wisconsin as part of 18 studies. Most looked at whether collaboration or consolidation across departments would help them address their challenges.
Fire departments in Wisconsin, most of which also provide some level of EMS care, operate under one of three models: career departments, staffed by full-time staff at all hours; volunteer departments; or combination departments, with a mix of full- and part-time staff, sometimes supplemented by volunteers. Wisconsin relies more on volunteers than most states. As of this June, 92.5% of the 762 Wisconsin fire departments registered with the U.S. Fire Administration are volunteer or mostly volunteer – the 14th highest rate in the country.
In our growing body of service sharing research, common challenges have emerged that affect agencies across the state. These include difficulties with staff recruitment and retention, financing capital costs such as vehicle purchases, or financing a shift to paid staffing models; varying rural response times that can range from less than 10 minutes to more than 30 minutes; or increased costs due to rising call volumes and inflation.
Despite these hurdles, through the Forum’s research, we have witnessed numerous successful changes occur in communities throughout Wisconsin. These include the consolidation of emergency services across seven North Shore municipalities in Milwaukee County, and mergers of departments in central and southern Ozaukee County. Departments in other regions, such as southern Milwaukee County and La Crosse County, have stopped short of full mergers but implemented improvements such as shared trainings or formalizing automatic aid and mutual aid agreements.
Lastly, after we published our review of 15 departments in Walworth County, local leaders used it as a focal point to launch conversations about how communities in northeast Walworth County might move toward a regional emergency response system.
Together, these examples illustrate what is possible when communities confront their challenges, set service priorities, and pursue new ways of doing business.
This information is provided to Wisconsin Newspaper Association members as a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.
