Kewaunee County Junior Firefighter Program receives training grant from DSPS

KEWAUNEE COUNTY – The Kewaunee County Junior Firefighter Program was recently named one of four recipients in the latest round of Youth Firefighter Training Grants presented by Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS).

“This is a grant to help our local communities develop training programs for our youth who want to get into firefighting,” said Dan Hereth, secretary of DSPS. “There’s been a shortage of volunteer firefighters throughout the state of Wisconsin — and really, it’s a national problem. Volunteer fire service makes up over 70% of firefighting throughout the state of Wisconsin. It’s really a critical public safety function, not just for our communities but also for volunteer firefighters themselves. If a local department doesn’t end up having enough people to answer a call, that puts our firefighters in a higher degree of danger.”

And Kewaunee County is no exception to that shortage of volunteer firefighters.

“The numbers just aren’t there anymore,” said Lew DuChateau, chief of the Luxemburg Community Fire Department. “I’m allowed to have 35 firefighters in the department and I’ve never met that number. We’re usually at about 28-30. And if we get a call during the day, we don’t know who’s coming. People have different jobs and they may or may not be able to get off of work.”

Out of that shortage, the Kewaunee County Junior Firefighter program was born in 2023.

The program involves four local school districts — Luxemburg-Casco, Kewaunee, Denmark and Algoma — working in partnership with eight fire departments across the county — Algoma, Denmark, Kewaunee, Town of Carlton, Tisch Mills, Casco, Luxemburg and New Franken.

“There was a need to get more daytime firefighters, so we approached the school, asking if we could use students to help us out…” DeChateau said. “It’s a win-win for the students and the fire departments. Students can learn what it’s like to be a firefighter and they can decide if they want to be a firefighter full-time when they get out of high school or maybe they just want to be a volunteer.”

The $24,525 DSPS grant will fund a youth firefighter program taught by instructors at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, allowing students to complete NWTC’s Entry Level Firefighter course and begin limited participation in fire calls.

“It’s important for us to be part of the solution when it comes to providing a pipeline for public safety,” said Dr. Kathryn Rogalski, vice president of academic affairs and workforce development at NWTC at NWTC. “We’re excited to give [the students] an excellent education. It’s going to be rigorous, but it’s also hands-on. You get experiences in the field and with your partners in the fire program that not all students get… Thank you especially to the Department of Safety and Professional Services for the opportunity to have this grant, to have Wisconsin support the gap in our skilled workforce and to provide a pipeline to public safety careers.”

Although students in the program will not come out of it as full-fledged firefighters right away — many participants are not yet 18 — they are still able to provide benefits to the departments they serve and will be well-equipped if they choose to continue with firefighting after they graduate.

“They’re not going to be the first in a crew on a fire, they’re not going to go out on a roof at a fire and they’re not going to do traffic control at a vehicle accident, but they can help us advance hose lines and they can do other things for us…” DeChateau said. “Once they’re 18, they can apply to be a firefighter with the department and then we can go through the application process and put them on as a regular firefighter with us.”