By Joey Harris
The Bismarck Tribune
BISMARK, N.D. 鈥� When an emergency happens in most parts of North Dakota, responses come from teams largely made up of volunteers. But staff numbers are falling, while emergencies appear to be on the rise.
State and local officials on Wednesday detailed challenges in staffing both volunteer and professional emergency services across North Dakota to lawmakers on the interim Emergency Response Services Committee.
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鈥淚 think we鈥檙e in an extreme crisis mode for personnel across the state,鈥� said Rep. Todd Porter, R-Mandan, who owns an ambulance service.
Incidents requiring a response from a fire department in 2024 were more than double that of a decade ago 鈥� from around 22,000 to 50,000 today. Reported fires are up, too, from just under 2,000 a decade ago to over 3,000 last year, state Fire Marshal Doug Nelson told lawmakers.
Some of the increase can be attributed to improvements in data collection and expanded responsibilities, Nelson said. But costs, both monetary and in human life, have been higher recently. In 2021, fires caused an estimated $44 million in damages, while in 2022, 19 residents died from fires, according to Nelson.
鈥淎t a minimum, our fires are not decreasing, incidents fire departments respond to are increasing, and some of our most devastating years on record due to lives lost and property loss are within the last five years,鈥� Nelson said.
Of North Dakota鈥檚 8,148 firefighters, over 90% are volunteers. There are around 500 firefighting positions that are unfilled across the state, according to Nelson.
But volunteer numbers may not tell the whole story. An increasing amount of volunteers are being blocked by their employers from responding to emergency calls, said Travis Bateman ,director of Badlands Search and Rescue out of western North Dakota.
Staffing may be even more of a challenge for ambulance services.
While numbers for some emergency medical service personnel are up, overall, they are down since 2020, according to numbers presented by Chris Price, director of the Emergency Medical Systems Unit at the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Of the people who are around, many are aging.
鈥淎 ground ambulance service with a roster of 10 will have one member that is at least 60 (years old), and one or two more that are at least 50 (years old),鈥� Price said.
Across all ground ambulance services, 74% arrive in under 10 minutes, according to data Price presented, but Rep. Porter said the quicker response times may not be representative of rural areas.
鈥淧eople are never calling EMS on their best day of the year, and when we hear back from people that said it took an hour to get there, in some cases, that鈥檚 a fact,鈥� he said.
Population decline, competition drive rural North Dakota emergency challenges
Porter鈥檚 comments represent what appears to be a growing disparity between urban and rural areas of the state.
鈥淲hile North Dakota is growing in population, our rural areas are getting smaller,鈥� said Ken Wangen, president of the North Dakota Fire Chiefs鈥� Association.
For Wangen, who runs the Carrington Fire Department, even relying on the help of other agencies to respond to major emergencies has been limited. When a train crash in Barnes County caused a huge release of ammonia and other dangerous chemicals in 2024, Wangen said, he could only staff the response locally for eight days before he had to rely on the emergency service that the railroad company brought in.
鈥淚f it had been an incident on the highway, I didn鈥檛 have the railroad to fall back on,鈥� he said.
Though shrinking populations are in part driving the emergency responder shortfall, growth in rural areas poses its own problems.
Right now, the number of workers in the city of Ellendale is greater than the town鈥檚 population size, Dickey County Sheriff Chris Estes said. Huge data centers are being constructed in the small community near the South Dakota border.
As competition from bigger cities has pulled more young people away, the area has seen a dip in emergency response personnel, Estes said. This recent increase in local commerce is also creating wage competition for emergency service and taking up the time of would-be volunteers, he said.
More funding, education floated as potential solutions
Beyond shrinking rural populations, many officials who testified blamed falling rates of volunteerism across society.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of citizens out there that think ' Fargo has paid firefighters, so therefore everybody else does,鈥� and that鈥檚 obviously not the case,鈥� Bateman said.
Some of this lack of volunteerism could get addressed through providing incentives, such as insurance and training subsidies, to volunteers and getting employers to let volunteers take time off for emergencies, Bateman said. But given the different dynamics of modern society, many officials said, the state should not expect a huge rebound in volunteer numbers.
For a job that can require long hours and be traumatic, asking someone to volunteer can be a huge burden, said Williston Assistant Fire Chief Corey Johnson .
鈥淚n EMS, we are looking for volunteers who are asked to complete hundreds of hours of college-level education, complete annual continuing education requirements and get out of bed at 2 a.m. to respond on emergencies that can take hours,鈥� he said.
More funding could go a long way to address staffing, said Mark Reinhart , who chairs the McVille Ambulance District . His organization got voters to approve an increase in local taxes to make up for funding shortfalls. If that increase did not pass, the district would not have enough money, he said.
There are some state funds for rural EMS that got bolstered in the 2023 legislative session.
鈥淎necdotally, that鈥檚 why we haven鈥檛 had an ambulance closure,鈥� Price, with HHS, told the Tribune.
But some emergency officials told lawmakers that these funds can be a challenge to access for volunteer departments without administrative staff.
More statewide high school career and technical education for fire and emergency response would not solve staffing issues completely but it could provide a lot of help, Johnson said.
鈥淚t has turned into a funnel of people for us,鈥� he said.
Beyond education and funding, Johnson said the issue needs to be a more regular topic that both the state Legislature and the governor鈥檚 office engage in.
Watford City event shows what is at stake
Whatever solutions lawmakers come to, the stakes of having adequate staffing could not have been clearer in fall 2024, when 鈥渞ecord-breaking鈥� wildfires in northwest North Dakota led to the deaths of two men 鈥� Edgar Coppersmith and Nicolaas van Eeden.
A recent event in Watford City honored both of the men and the first responders who put the fires out.
A resident of South Africa, van Eeden, was working on a Tioga-area ranch when he died in the fire.
His widow was in attendance to honor him and got the opportunity to meet Highway Patrol Sgt. Coby Hubble, who found van Eeden and was awarded a distinguished service medal for his efforts, according to the state.
Just after the fires last year, the friends and family of the two men told the Tribune about who they were and how they mattered to the people around them.
Brittany Wolla, who hired van Eeden, said he became like a member of her family.
鈥淥ur kids would run in the yard and ambush him with water balloons, and he bought them a rugby football and loved to sit with them in the yard and teach them how to throw. He was a very, very good man,鈥� she said.
June Brostuen , who was Coppersmith鈥檚 girlfriend, said the two shared interests in hiking and working with horses.
鈥淪omebody was asking what he was good at. I can probably tell you it鈥檇 be quicker to say what he wasn鈥檛 good at,鈥� she said.
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