WI Fire Department to Close over Lack of Volunteers, Recruits

A long-standing Wisconsin fire department will shut down at the end of the year because of dwindling volunteerism.

Woodland Fire Rescue in rural Dodge County will discontinue service after Dec. 31, the department said in an online post last week. The agency, which has been in operation for nearly 150 years, has 14 members, with only eight members regularly responding to calls, Chief Tony Roethle told WISC-TV.

The decision to shut down the department covering an unincorporated community in the towns of Herman and Rubicon was reached because of the lack of volunteers and eligible young recruits. Only one Woodland firefighter is younger than 30 years old, and ideally, the department would staff around 30 members. 

"We've made the choice to step away before we can no longer give our community the fire protection they deserve," the department said Tuesday. "We will be fully operational until midnight on December 31st. We are still trying to figure out what happens after that."

Roethle told WISC that three nearby departments—Iron Ridge, Hustisford and Neosho—will most likely take over covering the 36 square mile service area. The department's are close enough that the chief doesn't expect much of an increase in response times.

“There’s a lot of pride in the fire service. You have to swallow a lot of pride to realize you can’t do something,”  Roethle said. “We’re doing fine so far, but we don’t want to get to the point where we can’t get the job done because of a lack of manpower.”