The volunteer firefighter shortage isn't new, but it's getting worse. The numbers tell a stark story:

• 897,750 volunteer firefighters in the U.S. in 1984 — the first year the NFPA began tracking
• 676,900 volunteer firefighters by 2020 — the lowest number ever recorded, a 25% decline over four decades (NFPA U.S. Fire Department Profile)
• 40% U.S. population growth during that same period, meaning far more people are depending on far fewer volunteers
• Tripled call volume, driven largely by the increase in emergency medical calls (National Volunteer Fire Council Fact Sheet)

The scale of the crisis is hard to overstate. Volunteers comprise 65% of all firefighters in the United States. More than 80% of fire departments are all-volunteer or mostly-volunteer. The time donated by volunteer firefighters saves communities an estimated $46.9 billion per year (NVFC Fact Sheet). When those volunteers disappear, communities don't just lose fire protection — they lose a service that most municipal budgets simply cannot afford to replace with career staff.

Here's a number that should reshape how every fire chief thinks about technology: 64% of all fire department runs in the United States are EMS and rescue calls. Only 4% are actual fires (U.S. Fire Administration, Fire Department Overall Run Profile). For combination departments — the departments most likely to be weighing technology investments right now — the ratio is often even more lopsided.

Spokane County Fire Protection District 8, for example, responds to approximately 4,500 calls annually, with EMS comprising the majority of their responses. They're not unusual. Across the country, the fire service has evolved into a predominantly medical response service that also fights fires.

It has been just over a year since the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) began its phased rollout across the United States. In that time, fire departments from coast to coast have navigated one of the most significant operational transitions the fire service has seen in decades — the shift from the legacy National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), which had served as the foundation for fire incident data collection since 1975, to a modern, cloud-based reporting and analytics platform built for today's all-hazards environment.

Firefighting remains one of the most dangerous professions in the United States. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an estimated 53,575 municipal firefighters were injured in the line of duty in 2024 (NFPA, United States Firefighter Injuries in 2024). While that figure represents a 15 percent decrease from the 63,175 injuries reported in 2023, it still translates to more than a thousand firefighters hurt every week across the country.

The same year, 62 on-duty firefighter fatalities were recorded nationally, with overexertion and strain accounting for 65 percent of those deaths (NFPA, Fatal Firefighter Injuries in the U.S. in 2024). Heart attacks alone made up nearly half of all fatalities. These numbers carry a sobering message: even as protective equipment and training protocols continue to improve, the fire service still faces an urgent, ongoing safety challenge.