Frequently Asked Questions
How many fire fighters are there in Minnesota? How many are volunteer? How many are career?
There are about 18,000 fire fighters in Minnesota. About 1,800 of them are career fire fighters. (About 16,200 are volunteer fire fighters)
How do you arrive at these numbers?
Nobody is responsible for keeping track of the number of firefighters; there is not a central reporting agency. (There are some self-reporting surveys such as the National Fire Experience Survey, see below.) It is difficult to track the numbers, since fire fighters can belong to one of several unions (not just the ones with fire fighter in their names), including the Teamsters and the unions who represent nuclear power plant personnel.
What is a career fire fighter? Do volunteer fire fighters get paid?
Career fire fighters have full-time paid benefited jobs as fire fighters. Volunteers are any other people who fight fires. They may receive no pay at all (there are about 100 volunteer departments in the state which provide no compensation at all), be paid on an hourly basis, or a per-call basis. Usually, volunteer fire fighters have jobs and careers outside of fire fighting.
How many career female firefighters are there in Minnesota?
According to the Women in the Fire Service 2005 Status Report (now posted at the International Association of Wome in Fire and Emergency Services site) there were 95 women on 8 departments, including two engineers, 16 captains, amd one chief.
Minneapolis Fire Department, with 70 (17%), at the time of the report, also had the highest percentage of women firefighters in urban career departments. Other urban career departments in the United States with high percentages of female firefighters include Madison, WI (15%), San Francisco, CA (15%), Boulder, CO (14%), and Miami Dade County, FL (13%).
As of November 2006, there were at least 31 career-level or combination (i.e., with some career and some volunteer personnel) U.S. fire agencies whose top-level chief was a woman
No organization that we know of at present tracks female volunteer firefighters or female wildland firefighters.
See also: A National Report Card on Women in Firefighting (April 2008)
What are figures for diversity in the career fire service in the United States?
As reported in the NFPA U.S. Fire Department Profile through 2006, quoting estimates (estimates are variable due to small sample size) from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the 2002-2006 period, there were approximately 25,400 African-American career firefighters (9% of total career firefighters) and 11,600 female career firefighters (4% of total career firefighters). These figures include fire inspectors.
Also see this link.
Who oversees fire fighters in the state?
Fire protection, and the people who provide it, are local issues in the same way that street cleaning is a local issue. In other words, there is no legislatively mandated state director of street cleaners. Localities decide on their own fire protection services. The Legislature does regulate fire fighters pensions.
What was the total expenditure of cities and towns for fire protection in Minnesota in 2006?
According to figures released in 2008 from the Office of the State Auditor, Minnesota, cities and towns spent a total of $368,132,891 for fire expenditures and capital outlays related to fire. Capital outlays comprised $66,398,615 of the total.
To see city budgets, go to http://www.osa.state.mn.us/Search/CitySearch.aspx
Choose a city from the drop down menu and a year. The budgets do break out fire.
To see town budgets, go to http://www.osa.state.mn.us/Search/TownSearch.aspx
Choose a town from the drop down menu and a year. The budgets do break out fire.
Do fire fighters get pensions? What is a relief association?
Career fire fighters are covered by the Police and Fire PERA (Public Employees Retirement Act). Volunteer fire fighters can get pensions if the fire department has organized a pension plan for them. These private, non-profit associations for volunteer fire fighter pensions are called relief associations and are managed by fire department trustees. There are over 700 relief associations in Minnesota.
How many fire fighters are there in the U.S.? (How many career, how many volunteer?)
According to estimates based on the National Fire Protection Associations (NFPA) U.S. Fire Department Profile through 2006 (released November 2007), there were approximately 1,140,900 fire fighters in the U.S. in 2006, a fraction of a percent increase from the previous year.
The information comes from an annual survey sent out to fire departments and a weighting formula used by NFPA in their estimate equation. In this survey, career fire fighters were defined to include full-time fire fighters regardless of assignments (e.g. suppression, prevention/inspection, administrative).
This survey defined career fire fighters who work for public municipal fire departments; it does not include career fire fighters who work for state or federal government or in private fire brigades. Career fire fighters were 28% of the total, or 316,950.
Most career fire fighters (74% of the 316,950) work in communities that protect 25,000 or more people.
The survey defined volunteer fire fighters as any active part-time (on-call or volunteer) fire fighters. Active volunteers were defined as being involved in fire fighting. Of the total number of fire fighters, 72%, or 823,950 were volunteers.
Most of the volunteers (95% of the 823,950) are in departments that protect fewer than 25,000 people. More than half of the volunteers are located in small, rural departments that protect fewer than 2,500 people.
Since 1983, a generally upward trend in career fire fighters has been more than offset by a generally downward trend in volunteer fire fighters.
How many fire departments are there in Minnesota?
There are 791 fire departments in Minnesota.
Eleven departments (Cloquet, Duluth, Minneapolis, Moorhead, Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, Richfield, Rochester, Rochester Airport, South St. Paul, St. Paul, and Virginia) are career departments.
Forty two departments are combination (some career and some paid on call members): Albert Lea, Anoka-Champlin, Austin, Bemidji, Brainerd [City], Brooklyn Park, Burnsville, Columbia Heights, Coon Rapids, Cottage Grove, Crookston, East Grand Forks, Eden Prairie, Edina, Ely, Eveleth, Faribault, Fridley, Golden Valley, Hastings, Hibbing, International Falls, Mankato, Maple Grove, Maplewood, Mdewakanton Sioux Community, North St. Paul, Oakdale, Owatonna, Plymouth, Red Wing, Roseville, Spring Lake Park, St. Anthony, St. Cloud, St. Louis Park, Stillwater, Thief River Falls, Waseca, West Metro Fire-Rescue District, West St. Paul, Winona.
738 departments are volunteer or paid on call (of these, 38 have a paid full time fire chief: Andover, Apple Valley, Brooklyn Center, Centennial [Fire District], Chanhassen, Chaska, Eagan, Elk River, Excelsior, Fergus Falls, Forest Lake, Ham Lake, Hopkins, Hutchinson, Lake Johanna, Lakeville, Little Falls, Long Lake, Minnetonka, Mound, New Brighton, Pine City, Ramsey, Rogers, Savage, St. Augusta, St. John's University, Vadanis Heights, Wayzata, Willmar, Woodbury).
How many fire departments are there in the U.S.?
According to the NFPAs U. S. Fire Department Profile through 2006 (published November 2007), there are an estimated 30,635 fire departments in the U.S. 13% of all departments are all career or mostly career but protect 62% of the U.S. population, while 87% of the departments are mostly volunteer or all volunteer and protect 38% of the population.
- 2,321 departments (7.6%) are all career, comprised solely of career fire fighters
- 1,731 departments (5.6%) are mostly career
- 5,134 departments (16.8%) are mostly volunteer
- 21,449 departments (70%) are all volunteer
Also see the National Fire Department Census Database, self-reported data by fire departments registered with USFA.
Where can I find fire data?
National Fire Loss Data and National Fire Fighter Injury and Fatality Data are reported annually in the NFPA Journal, usually in the Sept./Oct. and/or Nov./Dec. issues.
Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program:
Fatality Investigation Reports http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire
NIOSH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
373 reports posted as of 5/28/08, beginning in 1984. Reports are available in PDF and html. To see a full list of reports, choose All in the State box, choose All in the Incident Year box, and do not choose a Medical or Trauma category in either of the medical or trauma drop down boxes.
How do I become a fire fighter in Minnesota?
Most cities and towns set their own requirements; check with your local fire department. However, many departments want you to:
- Be a high school graduate
- Have a valid drivers license
- Be able to use computers and have some math and science courses
- Be healthy and in good physical condition
- If you are in high school, check to see if your local fire department has a Fire Explorer program. Many previous Fire Explorers have gone on to become fire fighters in their communities.
- Take courses at a Minnesota State College or University. Thirteen Minnesota State Colleges and Universities offer Firefighter I and Firefighter II courses. Hennepin Technical College, Lake Superior College, and Northland Community and Technical College offer a two-year AAS degree. Southwest Minnesota State University offers a Fire Service Administration bachelor degree.
How can I become qualified to fight forest fires?
Meet the requirements of the state or federal agency doing the firefighting to get on a list of qualified people to be called up. You must take and pass a physical work capacity test. Check out the Wildland Training Information page at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Several Minnesota State Colleges and Universities offer some wildland fire training. Itasca Community College offers a one year diploma and a two-year AAS degree.
How many emergency medical service providers are there in Minnesota?
According to the EMSRB, as of January, 2009, there are about 10,600 EMT-Basics (emergency medical technicians), about 200 EMT-Intermediates, and about 2,400 paramedics. There are 311 ambulance services. There are about 17,300 first responders. (Total registered personnel: 30,448...above numbers have been rounded off.)
How many sites in Minnesota provide training in emergency medical response?
There are about 90 training institutions in Minnesota that provide emergency medical services training programs.
Where can I find general information about firefighting as a career?
Description of firefighting as a career from the Occupational Outlook Handbook (U.S. Department of Labor, Burearu of Labor Statistics. Sections include: Nature of the Work | Working Conditions | Employment | Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement | Job Outlook | Earnings | Related Occupations | Sources of Additional Information
Where can I find general information about emergency medical technicians and paramedics as a career?
Description of emergency medical technicians and paramedics as a career from the Occupational Outlook Handbook (U.S. Department of Labor, Burearu of Labor Statistics. Sections include: Nature of the Work | Working Conditions | Employment | Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement | Job Outlook | Earnings | Related Occupations | Sources of Additional Information
