Rising temperatures and aging firefighters: What happens if young people don't sign up?

Volunteer firefighters on the Mid North Coast are getting older, raising concerns about how strong these vital community assets will be as Australia faces increasing temperatures and bushfire risk.

This week, the government released its National Climate Risk Assessment, a document analysing the extent to which the country will be impacted by ongoing climate change. 

Coastal towns facing rising sea levels, increased extreme weather like major flooding seen on the Mid North Coast, and a general consensus that bushfires across the country are set to become much more intense, were all major points of a report that also noted the nation’s general emergency volunteer population is ageing – with an average of 42 percent of workers aged 55 years or older per LGA.

While all volunteers are valuable, and long-term servers bring experience and skills to provide disaster response and recovery within their communities, members aging poses an emerging risk – what happens when they hang up their hard hats?

Half of the volunteers are retirement-age

Inspector Chris Wilson, Acting District Manager for Lower North Coast RFS, services the Kempsey Shire and Nambucca Valley across 33 brigades. He said most members are in their 60s.

“We are facing a median age that is rising in our organisations,” Wilson told the Mid North Coaster.

“The retirement age is going up, which probably means that the people that have time to spare time [to volunteer] are their age”. 

While Wilson said these volunteers do “amazing work” and pass on invaluable skills, RFS is hoping to gain a “wider range” of volunteers, including more younger people.

Time-poor residents meet cost of living crisis

Inspector Wilson believes the rise in cost of living could mean people are less attracted to the unpaid work of volunteering with RFS – and could be behind the challenge of attracting young people. 

Another contributing factor Wilson considered was people being “time-poor.”

“Especially after COVID-19, they're putting a lot more emphasis into that family time,” he said.

“What time they do have, they’re spending on other important things like going to the kids' sport”.

In his mid-40s, Wilson admits engaging the younger crowd for recruitment is a challenge.

“It’s hard for someone like myself to try and work out what sort of language or terminology, or how to engage with the younger ones nowadays, with the different platforms and different challenges that they face.”

Back to back wet weather

When it comes to the struggle of getting people to join RFS, Wilson considers the continuous wet-weather patterns and major flood events on the MNC over the past few years. 

“People might be leaning towards volunteering with SES, for example, where it's a bit more front of mind.”

“When there's a lot of fire in the landscape, you see a lot more people put their hand up and want to come and join us and want to help because they can see the devastation and the damage and they want to assist their community”.

What about paid Firies?

It’s not just a lack of young volunteer firefighters on the MNC, with an ongoing drive to recruit paid firefighters almost constant. 

Matt Goldman, Acting Superintendent of Fire and Rescue NSW for region North One on the Mid North Coast, said most of the 19 Fire and Rescue stations from Woolgoolga to Tea Gardens currently have vacancies.

He said the organisation is “going through a challenging time” recruiting staff on the Mid North Coast.

And the staff they do have state-wide is also aging.

“Our workforce is getting older. We’re averaging in the 40s,” Goldman told the Mid North Coaster.

Not having enough hands on deck when disaster does strike is one concern. The other is losing long-time workers without a younger generation to pass their knowledge on to.

“A lot of our staff, when they join our organisation, they stay a long time and that’s really good for us. We get that experience [and] extra qualifications,” Goldman said.

“But when they leave us, it leaves a big hole. And it takes a while to learn those skills, so when we get new staff, it takes us a long time to train them up to get them to be able to be where that aging force is, and was.”

Ahead of bushfire season, Goldman said Fire and Rescue is actively recruiting, training staff in new skills, and “putting our recruits through the paces to try and fill that need in the Mid North Coast.”

NPWS and Forestry on call

There are four firefighting agencies on the Mid North Coast. 

Alongside RFS and Fire and Rescue, both National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Forestry Corporation have staff within their organisation trained in firefighting. All four services provide fire management – like hazard reduction burns  – and are deployed to fight unplanned fires. State Emergency Services (SES) also assist with fires, as the firefighting agencies assist with floods, storms and motor vehicle accidents.

Upcoming season predictions

Goldman is expecting a “fairly mild” bushfire season for 2025 summer with an above average rainfall prediction for the rest of the year.

“I think this year we might be let off the hook a little bit,” Goldman said. “But you never know what’s going to come around the corner. We’re trying to be prepared for anything.”

However, it has been reported that while this year’s wet weather has pushed back the bushfire danger season, the heavy rainfall has led to more growth, increasing the risk of fast-moving grass fires.

In addition, this year’s severe weather events – including ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, May flood events, and storms on the Mid North Coast – have hampered hazard reduction efforts across the state, according to NSW Emergency Services Minister, Jihad Dib.

Currently, the landscape is starting to dry out, making the RFS annual September Get Ready Weekend timely. Events will be held across the Mid North Coast this weekend, Saturday 20 and Sunday 21.