Since its founding in 1942, the Bainbridge Island Fire Department has relied on volunteers to serve the community. Nearly eight decades later, the department’s need isn’t as great for volunteers due to increasing call volumes and evolving community needs.
“Call volumes over time, as they’ve grown, have put a strain on the ability to support responses strictly with volunteers,” BIFD fire chief Jared Moravec said. “So over time, the department has grown its paid staff to support the services required by the community.”
As of April, BIFD has six active volunteers. Moravec said BIFD is not currently accepting new volunteer firefighter or EMT applications as the department evaluates the program. No new volunteers have been accepted in the past two years.
“It’s hard for volunteers to keep up with the sheer amount of training that’s required anymore,” Moravec said. “As a result, we’ve seen those volunteer numbers decline over time, just because there’s not enough hours in the day for a lot of folks.”
Statewide, Washington had 13,864 active fire service volunteers in 2014. By 2024, that number had decreased to 11,204. In Kitsap County, there were 265 volunteers in 2014 compared to 111 in 2024, per the state Board for Volunteer Firefighters. The board does not track roles and ranks within municipal departments.
Moravec described some of the changes to the volunteer role.
“I can even remember my days as a volunteer in the early ’90s. It wasn’t unusual for volunteers to close up shop where they worked and respond to calls,” he said. “But what we’re finding now is a changing demographic and a change in the nature of work. The way responses occurred in the past isn’t the reality we live in anymore.
“In the early 2000s, we still had a requirement that to volunteer with the…department, you had to live or work on the island,” Moravec said. “We found that to be a barrier to keeping our numbers up. So under the leadership of chief (Hank) Teran, my predecessor, we made a change and opened things up.”
However, Moravec said the additional time commitment required for off-island volunteers, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to a further decline.
Volunteer firefighter/EMT Devin James has served with BIFD since 2019.
“For my entire life, I always wanted to be a firefighter. It was something I always came back to,” James said.
Before joining BIFD, James volunteered with Bainbridge Prepares. He also serves as president of the Bainbridge Island Volunteer Firefighter Association.
“We live on an island. If we have an earthquake, I want to be part of the solution, not the problem,” he said. “Or at least be able to help my family or do something.”
Moravec also said limited weekend fire academy classes are a challenge, slowing down the training process for dual-role Fire/EMS volunteers.
“We’ve gone through a variety of iterations within the program, and now it’s just a great time to reevaluate and decide how we want the program to look moving forward,” he said.
BIFD plans to host a kickoff meeting in May as part of a strategic planning process that includes reviewing the volunteer program. Moravec said they haven’t yet determined a meeting date. The process will involve input from frontline BIFD staff, current volunteers, board of fire commissioners and members of the public. Moravec said the review will likely wrap up before fall budget discussions.
“I need to make sure that I’m getting a lot of input,” Moravec said. “The volunteers are part of the fabric of the department, and it’s important we hear a lot of voices before we make any decisions about the program.”
