Ferndale Fire Department seeks volunteers to strengthen local emergency response

Ferndale’s firehouse was carrying a heavy load with a small roster, answering roughly 320 calls in 2025 with just 27 to 28 members spread across four companies. Department leaders said the staffing gap mattered because every new volunteer added response coverage, backup on scene and more hands for the training required to keep a rural department ready for the next emergency.

The Ferndale Volunteer Fire Department was actively recruiting adults who live or work in Ferndale and can make a serious commitment to the mission. Public information officer Giovanni Jif D’Aguanno said the department was trying to grow, a reminder that volunteer fire service in Humboldt County depends on people who can show up reliably for calls, drills and station duties, not just when it is convenient.

That need carried real consequences in a town like Ferndale, a quaint Victorian village on the north coast of California in Humboldt County. The city sits in the Eel River Valley, where a volunteer crew does far more than respond to flames. The department is part of the daily public-safety backbone for Ferndale and nearby areas, and if staffing falls short, the burden falls harder on the few people already covering calls, training and the long hours between alarms.

The pressure reflects a larger countywide problem. Humboldt County says fire protection is delivered year-round through a patchwork of fire districts, tribes, cities, joint powers authorities, nonprofit organizations, contract agencies and informal associations. The Humboldt County Fire Chiefs’ Association has said departments continue to struggle with financial hardship, volunteer recruitment and retention, and providing services beyond jurisdictional boundaries. In a county with so many different providers, a thin volunteer pipeline can mean slower relief, fewer people available for back-to-back calls and more strain when mutual aid is farther away.

Ferndale’s department has deep roots in that system. It was founded in 1891 and now consists of four companies, but leaders have also been looking beyond the current footprint. The department has pursued annexation plans that would extend coverage toward the Rio Dell and Petrolia fire districts, and if voters approved the move, the coverage area would more than double. That would make recruiting even more important, because a bigger response area without more firefighters would stretch an already limited roster.

Humboldt County’s Fire Chiefs’ Association maintains a Fire Services Directory to help connect the public and agencies, another sign of how decentralized emergency response remains across the county. In Ferndale, the recruitment push was not just about filling uniforms. It was about preserving a local response system that has helped the community since 1891 and keeping that system strong enough to answer the next call.