A continuing shortage of volunteer firefighters in Nova Scotia could mean more unanswered calls for help, fire officials warn.

In March, an elderly couple were cooking a meal in their home in Aspotogan when a small fire started in their kitchen. They called 911, but no one from the nearby Blandford fire department showed up.

'I can take you to fire stations ... and you'll think you're looking at a seniors' club'—Blandford fire Chief Philip Publicover

In August, a house in Blandford was destroyed when a fire broke out in the afternoon and only three local firefighters answered their pagers.

Blandford fire Chief Philip Publicover said the problem is a shortage of volunteers. And with fewer men and women joining volunteer fire departments, he said other communities with older populations like Blandford face a crisis. 

"I can take you to fire stations and show you a wall of pictures of their active members, and you'll think you're looking at a seniors' club," he told CBC News on Wednesday.

Publicover said he has 19 members in his department, down from 28 just five years ago.

"The community demographics are working against us," he said. "The community is predominantly retired and because of the cost of [land] in this coastal community, very few young families live here."

Publicover considers this a wakeup call for the province.

"When the doors start closing on fire stations, that's when it's going to hit, and it's going to be abrupt," he said.

Provincial fire marshal Bob Cormier said he is well aware of the plummeting number of trained volunteer firefighters in rural Nova Scotia and recognizes that even those crews with decent numbers are in trouble.

Cormier is hosting a training session Thursday for the province's fire departments, focusing on how to provide fire and emergency services with too few volunteers.

"We have had three fire departments in the Barrington area that united into one fire department in order to be sure that they had adequate personnel to respond to calls," Cormier said.

Another challenge, he said, is finding a way to convince employers to let their workers take a few hours off to go fight a fire.