Rural Fire department volunteer or paid

[khcstud]

100% also volunteer and couldnt be more happy.

[Katee]

All volunteer. The fire department next to us for incentive is paying per call or something like that, I guess.

Around here, its mostly volunteer. There's one paid department in town as fire as fire goes, and one department that's EMS. Oh yeah, and they DO work together.

[ffemtdrew14]

Fire:100% volunteer and proud of it.

EMS: paid and either posts at our station or posts at the mall close to the city. (ambulance service covering our area covers the city and all or part of 7 townships and medic assist to others as needed, staffing minimum of 4 trucks 24/7)

[EMT857]

100% Volunteer for Fire and Rescue and BLS(separate entities though.

I just finished my FF1 last month and came of probation

[p3sibley]

The Halifax Fire and Emergency Service in Nova Scotia, Canada is a composite department with around 250 career staff and 800 volunteers.

Station 1 - administration

Stations 2-18, core stations, staffed 24/7 by career firefighters, some volunteers on second call out if needed.

Stations 19-63, rural stations, run primarily by the volunteers. Some stations have 2 career staff Monday to Friday to support the volunteers during peak hours, but during nights, weekends, and holidays, it's 100% volunteer.

Volunteers receive a point for each call, training session, meeting, or fire prevention activity. The point value changes each year depending on the total number of points awarded, but last year, the value was around $5. The point of the honourarium is to just give a little bit of money back to cover the expense of gas, etc.

My station runs approximately 150-200 emergency calls per year. Fires are way down. The most common call is medical emergencies.

[EMT_Kyle]

meh....90% volunteer. Im paid at one of my stations.

[docspoon1666]

The department I am on is a volunteer dept. but during the day when the rest of us are trying to earn a living there are 3 paid (if you want to call it paid) personnel, 2 engineers, and 1 administrator. The cool thing about them is that they are all volunteer members too. So the area they service is the area they respond to after hours also. We do both fire and medical on a BLS level. There is a county ALS truck that we assist on calls where the communication center feels they will need assistance on, response codes of charley, delta and echo. I’m sure that with the growing population of this area within the next 5 to 7 years we will be a fully paid department, to better service the community. Which I do not mind doing, I would love to get paid for what we do in the fire & rescue service. The training we do as volunteers is the same training that that full time paid fire and rescue personnel get. One of the real sweet things about the volunteer departments is they are normally county funded (at least here they are) and the education one can get with the investment of only your time and brain is great. So use that time wisely, in areas of rapid growth, it’s only a matter of time before you too will be a fully paid provider. If you use the system to its full potential then at that time you can just step in to a paid position of something that you love doing……….see no brain-er there.

[ffpm41]

I am fortunate to be a paid full time firefighter, but I am damn proud to also be a volunteer FF, and I work PRN for one of the Amb. Services

First off, try and register instead of being a guest. Second, I can understand working the ambulance job, but why would you be a volunteer firefighter? What is going to happen to you and your family if you get hurt and cannot go to your paid job? Since we have no idea where your from I don't know what would happen when the money runs out and your bills aren't paid. I have considered moving to an area with limited fire coverage and didn't, but if I did there is plenty of other ways to get involved in a non-hazardous way like helping with training, administration, etc. I won't even mention union issues if the department you volunteer for has union firefighters and you are also in the union.

I am also a Paid Professional Paramedic/Firefighter in a "combination" department. We have 80 career staff that ran 8000+ calls and cover 120 sq. miles, including a large rural area. We have four staffed stations and eight volunteer stations. I say "combination" because we still have volunteers on the books for fire insurance ratings. 99.99% of our calls have career personnel on them and we rarely see volunteers. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen them on calls in the last year, fire or EMS. My problem is that even with low recruitment and retention rates my department is still stuck in the past spending money, time and effort on a program that has lost it's viability in my community.

I am not saying that there should not be volunteers, many communities cannot afford hiring career staff or run the volume to support it. Many systems, career or volunteer, provide great service to there citizens and should be applauded. People from other online communities must have logged on and taken this one over for the "career vs. volunteer" debate. Bet it's the same people who wear the "I volunteer to fight what your fear" t-shirts, and ask "what's the best light bar" or "where can I get a Hurst tool to carry in my car?"

Thank you for your service as volunteers but get over yourself.

[SSaint]

My town is all volunteer fire (10 fire districts), with a combo paid/vollie EMS Department (the day shift is mostly paid professionals, and the night/weekend shift os mostly volunteers)

A few of the fire districts have 2 or 3 paid employees, to mind the office, perform maintenance, etc. They're pretty much Monday - Friday, 0900-1700

[redwolfef6]

Our Fire and rescue are combined as well. Currently we are 100% volunteer.

We are trying to get a paid medic and emt/ff on, but money is an issue.

Had a study that showed that we lose approximately 20% of our call volume due delay in response.