The Laconia Fire Department is now fully staffed despite a nationwide struggle to recruit and maintain firefighters.

“I’ve been here since November, and during that time, we’ve hired eight people,” Fire Chief Tim Joubert said. “I was just on the fire academy website, and I think there are 28 vacancies posted, so it’s an issue throughout the state.”

Joubert described the new arrivals as a “great mix” of veteran firefighters from other departments and brand new recruits.

“The second-to-last person we just hired graduated from high school in June of ‘22,” Joubert said. He’s 18, but went through a tech program at his high school and received all his certifications.

“He’s a great kid, hopefully he’s gonna be here his entire career, maybe be the next fire chief one day.”

Joubert stated that his ultimate goal is to make the Laconia Fire Department the “premier department” in the state. “I want this to be when there’s an opening, we get 20 to 30 applications, that used to happen,” Joubert said. “I would say [now] we get five max, out of those five, three are fully qualified.”

Even with low applicant numbers, the department has finally managed to reach full staff. However, getting to that point was a long struggle for the department due to the highly competitive relationship between firehouses across the state.

“Over the last three years, rough numbers, we’ve hired 30 people and 18 or 19 have ended up staying,” Joubert said. “We’ve had a lot of transition because there’s so many job opportunities throughout the state of New Hampshire. If you’re a fully qualified firefighter EMT paramedic with some experience, you have a lot of opportunities you wouldn’t have 10 years ago to go to other departments.”

One of the most notable changes Joubert noted was the prevalence of lateral transfers, i.e. firefighters who switch departments. Joubert noted that some departments could offer $20,000 differences in pay, enticing many to hop from municipality to municipality.

“Ten years ago, [lateral transfers] didn’t occur. The city of Manchester wouldn’t take lateral transfers,” Joubert said. “As a profession, it became less popular. Because a lot of other professions you could make more money a lot faster. The schedule can be challenging sometimes for people and the work. It’s a hard, dangerous job and that sometimes turns people off.”

With increasingly fewer young people interested in the profession and with more opportunities for safer careers, there’s not much of a mystery when it comes to firefighter recruitment.

To counter these forces, the department and the city agreed to raise salaries, a tactic that appears to be working.

“Talking to people that had been here, other chief officers, the city manager who was the former chief, [the department] was like a revolving door,” Joubert reflected. “One of the biggest issues was salaries. The union in June of 2022 signed a contract that made the salaries competitive in the state of NH. It’s not the top, but it’s competitive.”

Joubert also noted that the city added four additional positions, which allowed him to bolster shifts and distribute workloads. Another aspect of increased recruitment and retention Joubert highlighted was the establishment of a strong culture and community.

“We always use the term ‘firehouse’ versus ‘fire station,’” Joubert explained. “A fire station is where you come in and punch the clock at 7 in the morning, you punch a clock at 7 the next morning and you’re out of there. A firehouse is where people build relationships, we have ownership in the program, the organization, you have an impact and that’s someplace you want to be.”

Despite being fully staffed, Joubert admitted there are some weaknesses in the department, specifically building inspections. The city has long struggled to properly inspect residential and commercial properties, resulting in a backlog and the existence of occupied but unsafe apartments throughout the community.

“We don’t have a fire prevention deputy chief as of yet, I’m kind of filling both roles,” Joubert said. “But we did have the opportunity to hire a part-time inspector focusing on multifamily inspections. I’m completing a fire prevention and safety grant with FEMA to fund that position full time for the next year to focus on multi-family and commercial business inspections.”

Joubert stated the department was “struggling” because of the amount of units in the city, with more expansions on the horizon.

“It is something we have identified as a weakness, and we’re trying to improve that by hiring a full-time deputy chief and full-time deputy fire inspector for multifamily and commercial businesses,” Joubert said. “In the grant I’m applying for, I had to write measurable goals, and I think the goal would be to try to get into every multi-family rental property at least once over a four-year period.”

As for the future, Joubert said he hopes the department will be able to retain their numbers and expand as the city grows with new developments like the State School project looming over the horizon.

“Sustainability is huge for us; we’re gonna have people retire, it’s inevitable,” Joubert said. “But I think the city and fire department has identified it, so we have things like sign-on bonuses now. We have educational incentives that you get paid annually for certifications and degrees.

“There’s a lot of things to try and keep people here but at the end of the day, money’s not everything. It’s got to be a place that people want to work and be a part of and grow and develop with, and that’s what we’re really trying to accomplish.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.

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