"Our community hasn't gotten smaller, it's gotten older," said Kevin Kruger, a volunteer EMT with the department at Tuesday's Village of Lewiston meeting. The fire company currently has 51 members, down from around 80 a decade ago.
The department still receives more than 1,000 calls a year and respond to fires as well as people dealing with medical conditions, with this January being particularly busy.
Barry Beebe, the president of the fire department and village fire inspector, said that when responding to a recent structure fire, the average age of the firefighters in the truck heading there was 60.
The department is down 12 EMS volunteers from a year ago and 16 from two years ago.
"Its very common nationwide," Kruger said regarding volunteer firefighter shortages.
There is no fixed number of volunteers the department needs since they take what they can get. Kruger said getting that membership number up to either the 60s or 70s would be a start.
Mayor Anne Welch recounted a time when a man collapsed in the village offices and they had to wait over half an hour for an EMT to arrive. The responder that arrived came from the Town of Niagara because there were not enough EMT's in Lewiston at the time.
A former employee of the New York Power Authority, Kruger said he wanted to pay back the community by becoming an EMT, so he took EMT classes from Niagara University as soon as he retired.
"I'm really disappointed how many people have told me in the past three and a half years I've been involved with this, 'Yeah I'd like to be more involved,'" Kruger said, with those people not ending up helping out.
Despite Beebe's mention of the age of those responding to a fire, Kruger said most of the new volunteers they got are in their mid-20s and older. The minimum age to join is 17, though you have to be 18 to be a full member.
In December, the fire company announced a new recruitment and retention program. New and current members can now schedule their duty time to satisfy membership requirements instead of a call response percentage.
New volunteers are asked to dedicate 16 to 24 hours per month for the company, with shifts taking place once a week.
"The hope is that this will open the door for more volunteers ready and able to respond to your emergency," Beebe said in a statement. "Fire companies around New York state as close as Erie County have had great success with these type of changes and we hope to mirror that for our community."
Kruger has already reached out to the Lewiston-Porter School District for new volunteers, with the company having four 17-year-olds working on the EMT program. He also plans on reaching out to Niagara University and distributing fliers around the village. The board members recommended setting up a booth during village events.
The Niagara County Office of Emergency Management offers fire service training programs throughout the year. Niagara County Community College also offers EMS classes.
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