New training opportunities, stipends available for NYS volunteer firefighters

New York State will expand stipend opportunities and offer up to $500 for volunteer firefighters to enroll in training, rescue and leadership courses, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The funding will help offset the cost of five new training courses available to firefighters. The stipends are aimed at boosting recruitment and reducing the cost of training for firefighters, Hochul said.

The newly announced stipends, from $250 to $500, are available for courses that include instruction on firefighter survival, search and rescue operations, and officer and incident command roles.

"This program makes critical training more accessible, allowing our volunteers to grow in their careers without sacrificing their ability to provide for their families," Hochul said in a statement. "I’m proud to invest in our volunteer firefighters who put their lives on the line to keep New Yorkers safe."

One new course teaches firefighters how to rescue themselves if they become trapped or injured during a fire or emergency. That course is eligible for a $250 reimbursement. Another course, which reimburses firefighters $350, trains volunteers with search teams to educate them on how to rescue other firefighters who become trapped or distressed, the governor’s office said.

The courses add to five other volunteer stipends of up to $1,250 for firefighter training. They include classes such as wildland fire suppression, and breathing apparatus and interior firefighting operations.

State officials said that since the inception of the stipend program, completion of a fire officer course has increased 35% and completion of an interior firefighting operations course has climbed 20%.

The state allocated a total of $10 million to help offset the costs of training courses in March 2024, Hochul's office said. 

"New York’s volunteer firefighters are critical parts of the fabric of communities statewide and they put their lives on the line every time they answer a call to protect those communities," said Terry O’Leary, the state’s acting commissioner for homeland security and emergency services.

The stipends will help recruit firefighters who may not receive overtime or child care to attend training classes sometimes totaling 160 hours, said Robert Leonard, spokesman for the Firefighters Association of New York, known as FASNY.

"FASNY has been working with the state and the entire New York fire service to increase recruitment of new volunteers for a long time," Leonard said. "We welcome the growth of the training stipend program, which provides support to these new firefighters and officers while they undertake these vitally important training programs."

Officials have noted a decrease in staffing at 75% of volunteer departments statewide. Most of the state and Long Island is covered by volunteer firefighters, who provide service to more than 9 million residents.

Long Beach, which includes a volunteer force, is the only paid professional firefighter and paramedic department on Long Island.

Several local departments have been advocating for additional stipends and payment under nominal compensation to pay volunteer standby crews to man firehouses and be ready to respond to calls.

Fire districts and chiefs said they appreciated the training stipends, but said more is needed to support firefighters and attract more volunteers. Additional compensation would require a change in state law, said Billy Theis, chairman of the Nassau and Suffolk Fire Districts Legislative Committee.

"We appreciate Gov. Hochul as advocate for firefighters," Theis said. "We’d like to see nominal compensation to address the amount of volunteers we’re down and times getting to the fires. Our job is to save lives. What we’re looking for is to have standby crews at fire districts. We want to change law to use another tool to help firefighters."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.