A PROPOSAL to pay volunteer firefighters for training has gained cautious support from the Country Fire Authority and a body representing volunteers.

Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre chief and former CFA chief executive officer Len Foster has raised idea of a payment as a way of boosting volunteer numbers.

Mr Foster said volunteer numbers were healthy, but an ageing population, a decline of the rural workforce and urban-rural drift could leave fire services short of people.

He said Victoria could expect bigger and more frequent fires that demanded a strong base of volunteers.

"The big variable is people and the way in which we maintain the fire fighting force in rural areas," Mr Foster said.

He said the number of fire fighter had fallen nationally by about 18,000 people a year from 1995 to 2002.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief executive officer Andrew Ford said the state's 59,000 volunteers should not be out of pocket for training expenses. He said they faced rising fuel costs and sometimes had to travel for training.

But he said volunteers would strongly resist any payment for call-outs.

"We would be interested in reimbursement for training rather than payment," Mr Ford said.

"Volunteering is beyond payment. It's a service to the community and worth more than money can buy."

He said volunteers should not be out of pocket for training and courses should be as accessible as possible.

CFA chief officer Russell Rees said some sort of financial support was on the CFA agenda, but he said it was "a hard nut to crack."

He said financial support to participate in training, or reimbursement for petrol costs should be "fully canvassed".

"I'm certainly not ruling it out," Mr Rees said.

"We must find a way to provide support for people to continue to participate, regardless of their money situation."

He said the idea of discounts on house insurance and car registrations had been floated.

"Very few of these systems were found to be truly equitable," Mr Rees said.

He stressed that a single approach would not suit everyone.

"We have people in primary industries, people who are self-employed and people on a salary, so one size does not fit all," he said.