Bethel Fire Department recruits nationally for a captain and firefighters

Bethel's fire department is advertising outside Alaska for help. It is "recruiting a Fire Captain and Firefighters or EMTs from around the country," according to its city webpage, and looking for volunteers at the same time.

The work does not wait for staffing. In 2022 the department answered 1,280 medical calls and 198 fire incidents, about four calls a day, covering fire suppression, advanced life support, technical rescue and hazardous materials for more than 6,000 people. The station is staffed around the clock.

It runs on a small career crew: a fire chief, a captain, three lieutenants and a handful of firefighters and EMTs. That the department is now recruiting a captain, a position its own roster lists as filled, suggests the roster describes the positions it is authorized to have rather than the people currently in them.

Bethel is not unusual in rural Alaska, where a small paid core depends on volunteers who live in the community and respond from home or work. What is harder to replace is the paid staff, and Bethel is fishing in a national labor pool for people willing to move to the Kuskokwim.

The city has also been repairing a problem of its own making. It moved to repay firefighters who were shorted on Kelly Days, the scheduled days off firefighters earn to offset the long weeks that shift schedules produce. The police department, facing its own recruiting difficulty, has proposed starting a cadet program.

Volunteers can apply online or by calling the station at 907-543-2131.