Port Edward's fire department is looking for new members to add to its volunteer fire department.

The team currently has nine volunteers now, but they usually only get 5 or 6 people out every week for fire practice.

Fire chief Shawn Pettitt notes that this problem isn't isolated to Port Edward.

"One of the biggest problems in Canada with volunteer departments right now is recruitment and retention. Part of that recruitment and keeping people there is volunteers being able to leave their job site when their pagers go off."

Chief Pettitt also says that you don't have to be a Port Edward resident to join the department and that he's also searching Prince Rupert for volunteers.