And they also risk their lives running into burning buildings to save people that they do not know. In fact, 343 of them died on one day trying to save people knowing full well that the job was one they may not come out alive from. I do not think that men who can die while doing their job or suffer debilitating injuries such as burns are overpaid. They make less money than public school teachers.
Firefighters also respond to automobile crashes, people stuck in elevators, medical emergencies because often times an ambulance cannot respond fast enough, high altitude rescues such as window washers whose equipment fails, carbon monoxide alerts, and an assortment of other emergencies.
Wish you had taken the test, huh?
My former father in law was fire chief and a tiny little rural department that seemed to be the epicenter of everything bad. 2 fireworks factory explosions in a matter of a couple of years that killed a bunch of people. US 12 across southern Michigan takes a hell of a toll and most accidents are bad ones. There was a fire that killed 4 young children that he responded to that really messed with him for a while.
In one night in that really tiny town a neighbor shot and killed his ex wife, her boss, both of her parents and himself. Then as nearly the entire fire department from the neighboring town was helping out, the house right next door to their department burned and killed 7 people. Just a freak thing that no one could have ever expected.