Gander fire department down 14 firefighters, recruiting more

Gander Fire Rescue is struggling to maintain volunteer firefighters and is looking to fill 14 positions in order to provide the best fire service.

Chief Paul Fudge believes the degree of commitmentrequired to become a volunteer firefighter is contributing to the lack of volunteers.

"You're on call one week a month, plus your training and your fire call. It's a prettysubstantialamount of time that you have tocommitto the fire department," Fudge said.

"More people want tospend more timewith their families thanvolunteering, so I think that has a significant amount to do with the lack of volunteers."

Currently, there are eight paid staff members and 34 volunteer firefighters leaving a 14-person shortage.

"If we have a fire that's a sustainable firein other wordsa fire that carries on for a longer period oftimewe wouldprobablyhave troublemaintaininga service," Fudge said.

"We would eventually, if it came down to it, have to call in firefighters outside of our municipality to come help us."

Fudge said there are benefits to volunteering, like training that could be applied to other jobs and comradery.

The fire department is currently recruiting to fill the vacant spots.