Lars Estrem
Founder of FireDepartment.net
(larger photo)
Lars Estrem started out on the fire line. He spent four years working wildland fire as a contractor for the U.S. Forest Service while he was in college, then seven more years as a Forest Service employee, working out of fire stations across Northern California.
On the fire line
Those eleven years were spent on engines and crews: wildfires through the summer and fall, and structure fires, rescues and medical calls in rough country the rest of the time. Lars ran pumps and drove the engine, led his crew's physical training and helped with search and rescue and swift water rescue. Most of all, he learned what it takes to keep a crew ready, and how much a fire department depends on the people who show up.
Helping fire departments
In 2009 Lars started FireDepartment.net to help people find their fire department and help fire departments find volunteers. Later, from 2016 to 2022, he also led online recruitment for the Nevada Fire Chiefs Association, where volunteer firefighter applications grew tenfold through a statewide online application and search marketing. You can see what that program did on our track record page.
What made FireDepartment.net special
FireDepartment.net was built for the fire departments themselves. Departments kept their own listings and websites up to date, at no cost, and more than 8,000 of them took part. Millions of people a year used it to find their local department, see its stations and engines, and learn how to volunteer. It was run by a small team, including a person whose job was to check and update department contact information every day, with thousands of fire department members updating their own pages.
Why it shut down
Google changed how it ranked sites, and a directory had to be highly accurate or lose its visitors. Even with daily updates from the team and the departments, traffic fell to a quarter to a third of what it had been, and in 2022 FireDepartment.net closed.
Why it's back
Volunteer fire departments, especially in rural areas, still struggle to find volunteers. So Lars is bringing FireDepartment.net back as a side project, starting with Oregon and Washington, to help their fire departments recruit volunteers. This time accuracy comes first: every listing shows when it was last checked and where the information came from, and departments can update their own pages and receive volunteer applications for free. If it helps, it may grow to more states.
Contact
Fire departments, associations and future volunteers are welcome to get in touch.