With the motive of better volunteer retention, the Thornhill Fire Department has recently transitioned to a paid on-call model, says Captain Brent Dawe.

“We’ve been a volunteer fire department for many, many years, and now we've just transitioned over to a paid on-call model. With that paid on call, and we're hoping to take in recruits and be able to hold on to them. So being able to get compensated for the time that you put back to the community.”

The department is seeking suitable recruits.

“We would like to get about another 20 more if we could. That would be kind of the optimal position for our department. We are making it work right now, but again, we always look at the burn out, the firefighter burn out, the emergency responder burn out. Every department is feeling it all over Canada. But we want to see if we can get those people up. Get it where everybody's fresh and ready to go for the next one.”

Dawe says new volunteers are required to complete firefighter training.

“We do expect everybody to go through the full professional firefighter 10-01 program, and that'll teach you right from the basics of putting on your PPE to all the way up to driving the trucks and pumping the truck so that is a requirement for us, the physical fitness, it's not too, too hard. It is demanding. We do push you to a limit, but it's 5 minutes of hard work. That's all we're asking to get through that one. So it gives us an understanding kind of where that recruit is standing as well. Are we going to put them up into a high rise, asking them to climb 11 storeys? Right. So it kind of helps us put and position firefighters where they need to be.”

Dawe says anyone interested in joining should come by the station.