Nebraska’s volunteer fire departments are facing bigger fires, year-round pressure and a smaller pool of people willing or able to serve. But the challenge also reaches beyond recruitment.
This is the final story in a weeklong series, Holding the Line, examining volunteer firefighting in the wake of major wildfires in Nebraska.
For a long time, firefighters talked about fire season as if it had a beginning and an end. In Nebraska, many say that is no longer true.
“Fire season now for Nebraska or all of us anymore is year round,” said Troy Shoemaker, Alliance fire chief and first vice president of the Nebraska State Volunteer Firefighters Association.
Shoemaker said the change is showing up in bigger fires, more mutual aid and more pressure on the departments trying to keep up.
“If it wasn’t for the fact that we had partnerships with other departments around us, across the state and even into other states, none of us could accomplish what we accomplished,” Shoemaker said.
Numbers from the Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s Office show how much the state depends on that system: Nebraska has 478 fire departments and more than 17,000 firefighters. Only six departments are classified as all-paid, while 449 are all-volunteer and 23 are combination paid and volunteer departments.
Of Nebraska’s 17,218 firefighters, more than 15,000 are unpaid volunteers. Fewer than 1,500 are paid firefighters, with just over 300 more listed as paid-per-call.
That means across much of the state, the people responding to fires, crashes, rescues, medical calls, hazardous materials incidents and other emergencies are neighbors who step away from regular jobs and regular lives.
“Individually we don’t respond anymore. We respond as a task force,” Oxford Fire Chief Bill Grossnicklaus said.
Departments are adapting in other ways, too. Some are widening who can join. Some are reworking old bylaws. Some are leaning harder into wildland training and new technology.
“We actually were revisiting our bylaws and constitution because we restricted to 21,” said Tim Nicholson of Curtis. “We actually went through to get more members, lowered it to 18.”
Shoemaker said departments also are asking how to bring in people who may work in a community even if they live elsewhere.
“How can we capture them to be a member?” Shoemaker said. “Whether they’re at work, how can we structure that and how can we make that work?”
But adaptation is happening under pressure. Chiefs say the volunteer pool is smaller than it used to be, even as the work grows more complex and more dangerous.
“We’ve seen that pool drop quite a bit over the years,” Grand Island Fire Chief Cory Schmidt said.
Eric Moul with the Nebraska Forest Service said recruitment and retention pressures are not unique to one town or one department.
“The recruitment and retention is hard for a lot of volunteer departments across the nation,” Moul said.
That pressure is one reason firefighters talk so often about training, mutual aid, leadership and safety. In Cozad, Trevor Munster said his department has invested in both training and equipment, including thermal cameras on grass rigs to improve visibility in smoke.
“Between the technology and the training that’s put forth, the last few years we’ve really dug deep into the wildland fire side of things,” Munster said.
Firefighter safety is not only about what happens on the fire line. U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska is backing bipartisan legislation aimed at the protective gear firefighters wear.
The Protecting Firefighters and Advancing State-of-the-Art Alternatives Act would authorize $25 million annually from fiscal years 2027 through 2031 for grants to develop next-generation protective gear free of PFAS, often called forever chemicals. The bill also calls for research into better resistance to carcinogens and chemicals from fires and emergencies and improved fit for firefighters with different body types.
Fischer said firefighters need equipment that protects them from fire without exposing them to other long-term health risks.
“The equipment that they have, it keeps them safe, but it’s not safe for them, for their physical well-being because of the chemicals in it,” Fischer said.
“We want to be able to make sure our firefighters are protected when they fight fires,” Fischer said. “But also that they’re protected by the equipment they use, that they have the necessary equipment they use, that we recognize some of the, for example, cancer that they’re exposed to from that and that we take care of these guys, you know, these men and women who are out there risking their lives for us.”
Fischer said the issue matters in Nebraska because so much of the state is served by volunteers.
“Our volunteers, that’s how the majority of Nebraska land mass is covered by volunteer firefighters who go and help other communities, not just their own,” Fischer said. “So huge shout out to what they do.”
That same idea came up repeatedly at the Nebraska State Fire School: Firefighters are not just protecting their own town. They are part of a wider system of mutual aid that stretches across counties and, when needed, across state lines.
Still, firefighters said there is pride in the work and a sense that the fire service remains part of what holds small communities together.
“The one thing they still have is a fire department that has your town’s name on it,” Grossnicklaus said.
Shane Cuttler, a longtime firefighter in both the volunteer and career service, said the broader issue is about more than fire departments alone.
“Everybody should be giving back to their community somehow, someway,” Cuttler said.
At the Nebraska State Fire School, the strands of the series came together: recruitment, training, technology, mental health, equipment safety and mutual aid. They are different pieces of the same question — whether Nebraska can keep building and protecting the fire service it still depends on.
“If you love your community and you love helping people out, it’s a no-brainer,” said Philip Schroeder of Miller.
Munster put it more directly.
“If you’ve thought about it, do it,” Munster said. “Don’t wait till the timing is right, because the timing is never going to be right.”
In the end, volunteer fire departments work because ordinary people keep deciding to answer the call — not because the timing is convenient, but because the community needs them. And as the risks change, firefighters said support has to change with them: more people, more training, better coordination and gear that protects the men and women wearing it.
“It’s worth it. It really is worth it,” Grossnicklaus said.