Newly-appointed deputy chief Simon Crowder inherited two vacancies when he came into the position weeks ago.

"We've been short for a while now, and it's pretty much at the point that we're short every single day," he said.

Currently 13 firefighters are retained at Junee's Fire and Rescue Station 337.

But with majority working a second job, Mr Crowder said the hardest times to fill the roster is during the day.

"This is a part-time profession, so in particular we struggle to get people to fill that 7am to 5pm, daytime call," he said.

Without enough staff to share the burden, during the heat of the bushfire season, the remaining firefighters have had to work up to 12 hour shifts.

Junee's staffing problems are not unique among smaller towns in the Riverina, with both professional and volunteer rescue services struggling to fill numbers.

Last year an investigation into fire and rescue services found declining volunteer numbers uniformly across the state.

Neighbouring Wagga in Tarcutta, volunteer memberships have remained relatively high.

But station commander Bruce Angel explained the rough number on the books can be misleading.

While the town can boast 40 volunteers on the books, owing to its aging population and migration of younger residents, only about 15 would be on call any given day.

"We have enough members to cope with most seasons," Mr Angel said last year.

"It's only when it's a major incident that we may struggle, but those are rare.

"It's not a critical problem now, but it will become one if we don't address it now."

To avoid filling a similar trend long-term, Junee's fire department are looking to remove their vacancies as soon as possible.

Two weeks ago, the station hosted its annual open day for up to 100 visitors.

"There was a lot of interest in the station, which was pretty good to see," Mr Crowder said.

"A lot of people came down to check out the place."

The true test, Mr Crowder said, was whether the day's casual interest may be translated into applicants for the jobs.