New recruitment video emphasizes need for volunteer firefighters in Dare County

Current TV, in partnership with the Town of Duck, has released a recruitment video highlighting the important public service that is provided by the dozens of volunteer firefighters who serve throughout Dare County’s 15 fire districts—and encouraging others who are interested in serving the residents and visitors of the Outer Banks community to sign up to volunteer with their local department.

Due to the large number of firefighters that are required to respond to structure fires and other emergencies—as well as the difficulty of staffing all of the county’s departments with a sufficient number of full-time firefighters to respond to the increase in calls that comes with an influx in visitors during the peak season each year—volunteers play an essential role in firefighting operations within Dare County.

“The volunteers are integral to firefighting operations just simply because of how many people it requires to respond to fire emergencies,” said Buxton Volunteer Fire Department Deputy Chief Jeffrey Del Monte. “It’s very unrealistic that any of the towns, from the largest to the smallest, could physically staff what was required to respond to just a simple house fire. And when you add in all the complexities of our commercial districts or hotels and the high density that we see in the summertime, it makes it even more solidified that we have to have volunteers in our fire response model.”

From the Town of Duck to Hatteras Village and the Dare County mainland to Roanoke Island, the 15 fire departments that serve Dare County are all independently run organizations that operate as either all-volunteer departments or with a combination of volunteer and full-time firefighters—and all of them are actively recruiting volunteers to aid in their response to emergencies.

“Everyone is taking volunteers; we all need help,” said Duck Fire Department Chief Donna Black. “There’s not enough folks on the beach. There’s not enough money on the beach to have everyone paid. We really need the help of our community.”

For a complete list of the 15 fire districts in Dare County—including contact information for those who are interested in learning more about the many volunteer opportunities that are available at each department—click here.