The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) created a survey to better understand the experiences of volunteers and combination fire, EMS, and rescue departments in dealing with the outbreak of COVID-19 and related social distancing measures.
Fire/EMS survey
The NVFC asked individuals to take a few minutes to complete the COVID-19 Impact on Fire/EMS Survey and is also encouraging re-taking the survey periodically (no more than once per week), so that the company can track changes in the response over time.
Between March 20 and May 21, 2020, 469 surveys were completed. Approximately 69 percent of respondents belong to an emergency services organization (ESO) with all-volunteer personnel, 26 percent belong to a department with mostly-volunteer personnel, and 5 percent belong to a department with mostly-career personnel.
Gauging the impact of COVID-19
Approximately 74 percent reported that their ESO has been adversely impacted by COVID-19, compared with 26 percent who indicated that their ESO has not been adversely impacted.
Respondents are encouraged to fill out the survey as frequently as once per week to report changing circumstances, so the aggregated results include multiple entries from the same respondent. Overall, approximately 19 percent of responses between 3/20 and 5/21 were from respondents who completed the survey multiple times.