06-05-2025
‘Public safety crisis:' Report reveals number of firefighters in Connecticut has dropped immensely
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Just two days after international firefighter appreciation day, state leaders are sounding the alarm after a new report detailed a drastic decline in the number of firefighters in Connecticut.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon issued a report on Tuesday outlining a 50% reduction in the overall number of firefighters since 2017 — with a 62% of reduction in the number of volunteer firefighters accounting for the bulk of the losses.
'When 51% of the communities in our state are served exclusively by volunteer departments, that 60% cut is being felt in communities everywhere,' Scanlon said.
'This just isn't a firefighter crisis,' Commissioner Ronnell Higgins, the official who leads the agency that houses oversees the State Police and state fire marshals, said. 'This is a public safety crisis.'
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Scanlon's report noted a slight increase in the number of professional firefighters. That is, an increase in the number of paid, full-time firefighters who mainly service the state's large cities and suburbs.
But even among the state's largest fire departments, recruiting and retaining firefighters has been a challenge.
'In 2011, we had over 2,000 applications for the job here — probably one of the most honorable professions that [you can] ask a person to do,' Arturo Rosa, the head of the union representing Hartford firefighters, said. 'As of this last run, we had 191 applications.'
News 8 spent Tuesday afternoon at Engine Co. 1 and Ladder Co. 6 of the Hartford Fire Department. In just a few hours, firefighters responded to multiple calls, many of them for medical emergencies — a duty that has increasingly fallen on the fire service. Several of the firefighters had been on duty for more than 24 hours, manning the busiest firehouse in the capital city.
Rosa said high demand and stagnant, inflation-tarnished wages have contributed to decreased interest among potential recruits and placed strain on experienced firefighters.
'We're being asked to do more, inclusive of putting our lives on the line, with less,' Rosa said. 'We're being paid less. We're being asked to do more and being paid less. That, at its bare minimum, is probably at the crux of the whole issue.'
Firefighters are also burdened with rates of cancer that exceed the general population.
'People knew for a long time that firefighting is a dangerous job,' Peter Brown, the statewide president of the professional firefighters union, said. 'You crawl into a burning building, its dangerous. You can get hurt, you can get killed. I don't think any of us signed up to — ten, fifteen years down the road — contract some horrible cancer.'
The confluence of crises facing firefighters has led the politically powerful union that represents their professional ranks to urge the state legislature to act. Lawmakers have already established, and recently bolstered, a fund to help pay for cancer treatment. Pending legislation would increase funding for treatment by implementing a fee of five cents per month on Connecticut phone bills. There is also proposed legislation intended to boost recruitment and retention.
Legislation to support the fire services typically enjoys bipartisan support. Rosa, the Hartford firefighters union president, said the vote on the bill to provide more funding for cancer treatment will be a test of how far that support truly goes.
'They stand next to us when its time to run for office and these are the times that we need them,' Rosa said. 'We stand with you in the picture to say 'Hey, here's a good that's gonna do a particular job.' This is the time that we need them to stand by us, and its with their vote.'
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