Why Do Volunteer Fire Departments Even Exist ?

self ^ | April 26, 2019 | knarf

[knarf]

If a small town has a need for a fire department, why is it more often than not a volunteer fire department ?

Should't the same taxes that paid fire departments operate from serve the smaller community ?

[DuncanWaring]

Is the fire truck also a volunteer?

[Fido969]

I don’t even know where to start, here.

[Paladin2]

For the same reasons Volunteer Police Departments exist?

[Vaquero]

Your taxes pay for the house and equipment. Can you imagine how much full time firefighters and EMTs will cost? Not just salaries but the benefits and enough back up. Thank goodness for the volunteers.

[caver]

That’s so they can have fish fries.

[Malsua]

I grew up in a township that is 25 square miles. Population of around 1500

It had 2 major structure fires that I can recall in 20ish years.

There were probably a dozen small brush fires a year.

It’s not a full time job, nor could the town afford to pay 3 shifts of folks sitting around waiting for the fire call once every other week to put out something that would have probably just burned out on its own.

[kearnyirish2]

The short answer is that most places don’t have enough fires to justify paying unionized government workers to sleep all day in the firehouses.

In my town, our paid department is a holdover from our manufacturing days; we have few fires, and pay unionized government workers often over $100K per year to sleep in firehouses. They resist regionalization, as well as combining fire with EMT/ambulance services. Behind teachers and cops, they are the third reason why old homes in a crumbling town bordering Newark NJ have taxes over $10,000 per year.

[Celtic Conservative]

It’s less expensive than a full time department. Volunteer firefighters only get a nominal fee when they get called out. That means less labor overhead than carrying firefighters on duty 24/7/365. For small communities it is a more economical choice.

CC

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Cash money, Honey!” ~ She said from her Cow Town of 283 souls of which a dozen or so are Volunteers. :)

[proxy_user]

In the town where I once lived, people used to leave the volunteer fire department property in their wills. Over the decades, the property became so valuable that the department now owns land worth millions of dollars, and collects huge rents. They have beautiful, expensive trucks and throw great parties.

[Retired Chemist]

My town in New York state was receiving fire protection from a nearby city and was paying the city for it. The city kept raising the fire protection rates until they became outrageous and a volunteer fire department was formed to provide fire protection for the town.

[sockmonkey]

A small town has a smaller tax base/revenue. Not enough to fund full time F.D.

[dp0622]

That’s where I let capitalism get the best of me.

I HATE volunteering.

The idea of doing anything remotely close to work and not getting paid drives me to near madness :)

I volunteered for the Trump campaign and will again though.

but let’s be frank, that’s a long term financial investment :)

[duckman]

Here at the OBX NC, the Volunteer Fire Dept, usually hose down the homes next to yours, while yours burns to the ground.

[StAnDeliver]

Here they also use them as apprenticeship positions, you work VFD for a year or two right out of high school, you will get a hire at the Slightly Larger Town next door for 56K at 20 or 21.

Also no one in this area makes Captain at Slightly Larger Town without having done VFD stint and also donating time back to the VFD.

[Alberta's Child]

A fire department is one of those rare public services that is measured as what I call a "negative benefit." What this means is that it is only there to deal with what is (hopefully) a rare emergency ... and a strong indicator of a well-functioning community is a fire department that never gets a single call.

What this means is that paying full-time staff to deal with problems that rarely occur makes no sense. So many towns simply adopt a hybrid model where they pay for the things they need to have available at all times (fire stations, fire and EMT equipment, etc.), but use volunteers to provide staffing for the rare emergency.

[redfreedom]

Oh for crying out loud, people with your understanding of how things should work is why some communities are taxed to death. Fire equipment is expensive enough for small communities to pay for.

Now take putting on full time firemen who in a small community with practically no fires will just sit on their rear ends all day long and get paid big wages. That’s a democrats dream.

Small communities do not have the population base to support it. If you live in a small community and do not feel safe, then move to Chicago or Detroit, demonrat paradises, and you should be OK.

Or if you like the earthy smell of rural life, move to San Fran where they crap in the streets. That stuff decomposes into dirt, plus they have a nice large fire department with pretty fire engines and trannies in uniforms.

Sorry for the rant, but I gotta keep going. Years ago we moved into a small community with gravel streets/no sidewalks. A few city people moved in and bitched until we got paved streets and sidewalks. The planners did a massive upgrade on the underground water and sewer system before paving so they would not have to dig it up again. The special assessment taxes drove many of us out.

[Chode]

yer kidding... right??? you ever been to a small town?

[mewzilla]

Because pensions and health bennies for retirees are unaffordable.