Across rural America, volunteer fire departments are struggling to fill their ranks.
As The Omaha World-Herald reports, the problem is that volunteer firefighters and ambulance drivers are growing increasingly older, and there simply isn’t enough interest among the younger population to replace those who age out.
But the problem is even bigger than that: Most small towns are seeing their younger residents leave for bigger cities, leaving older citizens behind. But as rural America ages, who is left to fight the fires or come to the rescue when a woman goes into labor?
Some states are fighting the trend. Nebraska has passed a law granting a $250-a-year income tax credit to those who volunteer for fire and ambulance services.
Still, it’s going to take a concerted effort to get younger firefighters on rural volunteer departments. Nationally, 31 percent of small-town firefighters are age 50 or older.