A bright red firetruck, a firefighter in full gear, and a fireman’s pole are visible through the picture windows of the brick building, along with lockers full of equipment and a waiting stretcher.
Instead of a fire-company name or logo, however, the lettering on the building in Rockville, Md., announces that this is not a real, live firehouse – but a recruitment center.
It’s the type of novel idea fire companies and associations across the country are attempting to reverse decades-old trends of alarming declines in volunteer membership and to bolster recent recruitment successes that have not kept pace. Acknowledging that some of the old ways aren’t working, they are getting creative – recruiting in venues such as houses of worship, atheist clubs, schools, book clubs, and chambers of commerce. Some even offer financial incentives.