GRAFTON, Mass. - On Saturday, the Grafton Fire Department held an open house event at all three of its stations to give local families the chance to meet firefighters and learn what it takes to join their ranks. 

Lieutenant Eric John is in charge of recruiting for the department, and hopes its first ever open house leads to some new hires down the road. 

"It's definitely been more difficult than it was in the past, I think the more advanced training we're requiring is making it tougher for a lot of people to put the time and energy into it," John said. "We've probably only started recruiting less than a year ago now, we've had some success with a few members and hopefully with the open house we'll see a few more."

While the department is never short-staffed to the point where it can't respond to an emergency, like many local departments, it would be nice to have some extra hands around. 

Grafton works as a call fire department, meaning you don't have to respond to every call, just the ones you can get to.

“If you’re at home having dinner with your family, you get up and go to the call, but if you’re out of town or at work you don’t have to respond to the call," John said. "It’s kind of whenever you can respond you respond, there’s no commitment you have to make every call.”

And despite the more rigorous training involved in becoming a firefighter nowadays, there's still new recruits coming in. Andrea Sivakova signed on in January. 

“I’ve been an EMT for about five years and I love helping people, I live very close to the station here so I was like ‘Why not become a firefighter?" Sivakova said. "I always wanted to be one.”

Sivakova is preparing to take the four month fire academy course, but she also sees the benefits of events like Saturday's open house being part of the job. 

“It’s great to see little kids come around, have fun, look at the firetrucks," Sivakova said. "Show them all around inside, explain what each truck does and what they go through.”

For more information on becoming a Grafton firefighter or to fill out an application, visit the town's website.