HONEOYE FALLS, N.Y. — What would you do if you called 911 for a fire but no one was able to show up? That’s the issue the Honeoye Falls Fire Department is working to prevent after they realized they had a serious lack of firefighters, prompting big changes.

The department, which has been run by volunteers since it was founded in 1885, has begun hiring part-time firefighters to answer calls as they face volunteer shortages.

“We have gotten to a point where, especially in the early morning hours, when most of our volunteers are working their full-time job,” Honeoye Falls Village Mayor Rick Milne said. “Some of them are working two full-time jobs. Plus they have a family to worry about. They are not able to volunteer or hit the calls when we’re told during the morning hours from, say, 5 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m.”

Milne feels it’s important to get ahead of the problem.

“We need to be proactive. We need to have firefighters to get that first truck out the door. So, we have decided to go with the per diem route, and we started this with our new budget for 2024,” he said.

The new, part-time firefighters will be hired from other full-time departments and will fill in about two shifts per week. Fire Chief Cory Trewer says it’s something that they plan to expand in the future.

“We had no choice, really, other than to look at supplementing the volunteers with career staff, which we have. The integration has been amazing. It’s going very, very well and we’re really happy with the program so far. And as the mayor said, it will continue to grow in the future,” Trewer said.

Milne said it’s all about keeping the community safe.

“People know that they need a fire truck to show up and if we have to hire per diems to make that happen, somebody would rather pay an extra $15, $20, $50 in their taxes and have that truck show up as opposed to not,” Milne said.

The village has hired 12 part-time firefighters at $30 an hour who will be working in crews of two from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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