For many, fire departments are an ubiquitous presence, thought of only when seeing a fire truck speed to a call. But local departments, and the thousands of volunteer firefighters who work in them, are almost facing an emergency of their own.
Membership in volunteer fire departments across New York State is on the decline, forcing departments to either downgrade, as in the recent closure of the Floral Park Centre Fire Company, or work towards a solution, as the local multidistrict collaboration among the Bohemia, Holbrook, Sayville, Bayport, and West Sayville fire departments has done.
For years, the multidistrict cooperative, like other districts across Long Island, has helped one another respond to mutual-aid calls and, more recently, worked together to secure grant funding for department recruitment.
“The community deserves a quality, prepared fire service,” said Sayville Fire Department second assistant chief Donald Marra. “And we could use a few more members.”
Through a firefighter assistance grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Sayville Fire Department, in collaboration with the Holbrook, West Sayville, Bayport, and Bohemia fire departments, has increased its recruitment efforts by posting signs and booths across the South Shore, creating a professional commercial, and improving its digital pages.
In Sayville, Marra said recruiting new firefighters often happens in waves, with teenagers and young adults, who often have more free time, able to join the department before going to college or starting a career.
But across local departments, members say retaining those firefighters is often difficult once they move away for school or work, or start raising families, which takes up even more of their free time.
And with house prices averaging around $690,000 in Suffolk County as of January 2026, according to Zillow, many young firefighters often find themselves working multiple jobs or longer hours just to afford to live in their communities, Marra said.
Because of the higher cost of living and cultural changes, the Fire Association of the State of New York (FASNY) estimates that volunteer fire department membership statewide has fallen from around 120,000 in the early 2000s to around 80,000 today.
“While we are not at the point of a crisis, more volunteers are needed to support the emergency response system in their communities and around the state,” FASNY said in a statement.
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