As volunteer firefighter numbers fall, Minnesota battles more than 1,100 wildfires already in 2025

LANCASTER, Minn. — Minnesota’s wildfire season is off to a fast and fierce start in 2025.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports as of mid-May the state had seen 1,143 wildfires — nearly as many as the state usually sees in a full year, and a significant increase compared to previous years. There were a total of 1,380 wildfires in all of 2024.

No matter where you are in the United States , most of the firefighters battling wildfires are doing it for little to no pay with only the promise of a pension at retirement.

Both Minnesota and North Dakota rank in the top five nationally for having the most volunteer or paid on-call fire departments, according to the U.S. Fire Administration .

While firefighters in both states are responding to more calls overall, the number of firefighters continues to fall in Minnesota while it rises in North Dakota.

WDAY found a 'little station the could' in Lancaster, Minn., though.

It's fully staffed and it doesn't have the recruitment and retention issues that are plaguing many other departments across Minnesota and the U.S.

Assistant Chief Clark Weleski said they have 25 volunteer firefighters.

"That's a full house for us, a good crew," Weleski said.

He added that they even have some volunteers on a waiting list.

Weleski is a mechanic by day.

"Whenever we get called for this, if I'm available, I'll show up," he said.

Weleski said firefighting is more than a duty — it’s a calling.

"I started out at the bottom of the totem pole when I got out of high school and worked my way up here," Weleski said. "So, hopefully, I can just do good, volunteer for the community. I like helping people."

Chief Casey Faken said when they get paged, he can depend on getting the staff he needs to fully-respond to the call.

"There's 25, 24 of us. Very seldom do you have to re-page because two guys showed up," Faken said.

That strength was tested on Easter Sunday, when a wildfire broke out north of Lancaster.

Faken said the call came in around noon and started on about 200 acres. The response included one plane, two helicopters and 26 firefighters — 10 from the U.S. Forest Service and 16 from Lancaster.

By the time crews arrived, the fire had already jumped a road and reached a logging forest, where piles of dry logs caught fire quickly.

The flames then spread to a nearby field. Crews were able to contain it, and were back at the station by 8 p.m.

"Our eyes were burning from being in that stuff all day," Weleski said.

In total, about 400 acres burned. Still, the crew remains ready for the next call — no matter the holiday.

"We've had Mother's Day fires, we call them, out in Caribou," Weleski said.

While they didn't have a Mother's Day fire on the west side of Minnesota in Kittson County this year, they did in St. Louis County on the east side of the state.

The first fire broke out May 11 with another two sparking the next day all north of Duluth. Combined they have scorched more than 30,000 acres.

Volunteer and paid on-call departments make up 87% of the 774 fire departments in Minnesota, according to the Office of the State Auditor.

Currently, the state has 20,038 total firefighters, including career firefighters . Twenty years ago, there were nearly that many volunteers and paid on-call members alone . Since then, the state has lost more than 2,600 firefighters — a drop of nearly 13%.

In the last five years, 43 all-volunteer departments in northwestern Minnesota have lost about 7% of their staff, according to the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Office.

At the same time, calls for service are increasing. Firefighter calls overall are up 2.7%, with the largest category increase being “other fires,” which includes wildfires — up nearly 54% .

The state has responded with increased aid. In the past five years, state fire and supplemental aid — which supports firefighter pensions — increased 49%, from $35.9 million in 2019 to more than $53.6 million in 2024.

Lancaster’s share increased by 27.7%, from $14,014 to $17,904 in 2024.

Still, individual firefighter stipends have fluctuated. The fiscal year 2025 stipend is $258, compared to $220 in 2024 and $300 in 2023.

Meanwhile, budgets for the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education, which are funded through the Fire Safety Account, have varied — $4.4 million one year, $2.1 million another.

That’s why departments like Lancaster rely on other funding sources: local, state and federal grants, county and city taxes, and community fundraising.

"We usually do a burger feed every spring," Weleski said.

That burger feed helps cover fire service for about 950 residents in the Lancaster area.

North Dakota has seen a significant increase in its firefighting force over the past five years.

According to the North Dakota Insurance Department, the state has added about 2,000 more volunteer and paid-on-call firefighters since 2019. That brings the total number of firefighters in the state to about 7,424 in 2024 — a 37% increase from 5,410 in 2019.

That growth in personnel outpaces the increase in emergency calls, which have risen by about 28%, from 40,921 in 2019 to 52,208 in 2024.

Despite the overall rise in calls, the number of fire-specific incidents, which include all types of fires, has fluctuated between 2,500 and 4,500 each year, with an average of about 3,400 annually.

The number of volunteer fire departments has slightly declined, with 10 fewer departments now operating, bringing the total to 334. However, the state has added two more career departments, now totaling nine.

It's a shift the Minnesota State Fire Marshal's Office said more departments are taking to fix staffing, retention or recruiting issues.