In recent years, the number of young people willing to join volunteer firefighting (OSP) units has been dwindling. OSP members in the southern city of Żory came up with a novel approach to swell their ranks.
They made a four-minute video, called From Zero to Hero, which follows a young man on a mission to seek out new recruits for his team.
Planning, finding actors and locations, filming and editing the video took two months to complete.
The hard work has paid off as tens of thousands have watched the clip. Since its release, the firefighters in Żory have been inundated with people interested in signing up.
‘This is real life!’
The Żory firefighters said on their Facebook page: “This video can be described in one sentence: This is not a trailer for a computer game where you can endlessly repeat failed missions, this is real life!”
“Each frame of our film is a demonstration of how important it is for new people to join the OSP, who will bring help to their neighbors and continue the long-standing traditions of our ancestors,” the post added.
Poland has almost 16,000 volunteer fire departments. There are nearly 1,000 in the Silesian province, in which Żory is located. Although there is no exact data, it is estimated that more than half of these are afflicted by staff shortages.
