Let’s Discuss Fire & EMS Recruitment & Retention: Is it me? Is it us?
Eriks Gabliks, Superintendent of the National Fire Academy
Thursday, June 12, 2025
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Applicants for fire service vacancies aren’t knocking on your door anymore. An agency looking to fill ten vacancies, hopefully finds two qualified candidates. Qualified individuals are leaving your agency because your neighbors are offering a $10,000 signing bonus for lateral hires. Sound familiar? You are not alone, it’s a national issue and is impacting career and volunteer fire and EMS agencies. As a result of the U. S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control, a work group was tasked to address this important issue for career and volunteer fire and EMS agencies. This session will share the work that has been done by the U.S. Fire Administration/National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Recruitment and Retention Work Group. We will share the national discussion and provide insight into various best practices implemented around the nation that you may find of interest.
Eriks Gabliks
Eriks Gabliks is the superintendent of the National Fire Academy (NFA). He was named to this position in November 2020. As superintendent, Mr. Gabliks provides leadership for the NFA, which focuses on enhancing the ability of fire and emergency services and allied professionals to deal more effectively with fire and other emergencies. His interest in the fire service began in 1982 when he joined his neighborhood volunteer fire company in Adelphia, New Jersey. Over the years, he would serve with 4 volunteer, combination, and career fire agencies.
In 1991, Mr. Gabliks joined the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST). DPSST sets professional training and licensing standards for more than 41,000 public and private safety professionals in the state of Oregon. DPSST also operates the Oregon Public Safety Academy, which provides training to more than 25,000 first responders on an annual basis. He served as agency director from 2010 to 2020, overseeing a staff of more than 450 employees. He is the first employee in the agency’s history to have ascended to this position from the internal ranks and served under 3 governors. Mr. Gabliks holds a master’s degree in public policy and administration from Portland State University. He has also completed the Executive Fire Officer Program at the NFA and the Executive Development Institute at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
Mr. Gabliks is past president of the North American Fire Training Directors and serves on various state and national organizations, including the Drexel University Fire Injury Research and Safety Trends Advisory Committee and many others. He is a first generation Latvian and speaks, reads and writes the language.
