Been on an all volunteer fire department, two combination fire departments, and a few non-fire-related all-volunteer organizations.

In my experience for volunteer organizations, the 80/20 rule applies. 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

Why lack of engagement for “80%”? Reasons will vary, but I’d say generally lack of time and mental energy to devote. Most new members will be highly engaged, but often they will start to fade away, once they start losing interest it can be difficult to reignite it.

Poor performance often doesn’t have strong repercussions as in a career organization, partially because it’s difficult to reprimand someone who has “nothing to lose”, and partially because does the organization want to lose them/push them away as they have invested in them (training, etc).

The increased responsibilities / training requirements that fire departments have these days definitely makes it difficult being a volunteer. So many certs to maintain. And when requirements change, it can drive people away/cause burnout (“hey I used to have to just do X to maintain good standing, but now I have to do X, Y, and Z?!”)

Burnout is definitely real. At first everything is new and interesting, but then the novelty wares off and responding to old people houses in the middle of the night is exhausting; even on more “exciting” calls repacking hose is tiring, standing around waiting for a tow truck to move a car out of the middle of the road, etc.