From Vox.

The US volunteer fire and ambulance shortage, explained.

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In US small towns, emergency fire and ambulance first responder agencies are still mostly staffed by volunteers – a practice put in place in the 1970s and 1980s. But these volunteers are increasingly older, with fewer young people signing up than previous decades. Higher cost of living and a diminishing rural population has made volunteering less appealing than it used to be. We interviewed experts in the field of emergency response to figure out how to get those volunteers back, and the answer may be a simple one: pay them for their time.

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Sources and further reading:

Retention and Recruitment for the Volunteer Emergency Services, US Fire Administration
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/retention-and-recruitment-for-volunteer-emergency-services.pdf

U.S. fire department profile, NFPA
https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/research/nfpa-research/fire-statistical-reports/us-fire-department-profile

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