Three years into the What Firefighters Want project, surveying firefighters across the United States and Canada, one issue continues to emerge as a pain point: poor agency leadership.
FireRescue1’s 2024 state-of-the-industry survey revealed some alarming statistics related to fire department leadership:
- 76% of respondents reported concerns about their fire department leadership
- 49% indicated that poor agency leadership has a high impact on retention
- 33% have considered leaving their department because of the fire chief
Chief Marc Bashoor offers a sneak peek at a handful of the survey stats.
Download the special report here, and check out more from the What Firefighters Want project here.
Thank you to ImageTrend for sponsoring the project.
What Firefighters Want: More from the Series
The gap between what firefighters say matters and what departments actually reinforce
Captain Lisa Burton breaks down what firefighters are asking for from training — more relevance, better instruction and fewer checkbox exercises
How to get down to fireground business even if you can’t get up to the roof
Are we training enough — and on the right skills?
Firefighters are increasingly looking beyond their departments for training and development
