Posted on 04/26/2019 3:56:33 AM PDT by knarf
I believe volunteer fire departments are ideal for small towns where most of the residents live and work locally, and most of the businesses are owned by local residents. That's the type of place where people see the value of volunteering up close.
In my area, local fire departments have had an increasingly difficult time attracting volunteers. Part of this may be a younger generation that is more selfish than their parents and grandparents, but what is really driving this is that more and more people living in these towns are commuting to jobs miles away ... and most local businesses are owned by people who live miles away, too.
So on a typical day there simply aren't a lot of local residents who can even respond to a fire alarm ... and people who commute long distances for work just don't have the time and energy to volunteer at night.
Ummmm - volunteers help save money and negate the need for higher taxes for smaller burgs....
Amen to that.
In my 20’s I bought my first home. Kind of outside the suburban sprawl. I was a little taken aback when my insurance guy notes I was only a hundred yards from a pond they could use to put out a fire. And that was a good thing. I was also 1/4 a mile from the line where the fire department was “obligated” to go. Beyond that, it was volunteers.
I grew up a lot in that home.
I can relate to your pond story. About a mile from our current home is a lake with a 6” pipe coming up from the lake with a fire engine hose connector to refill a fire engine.
I see this, as well as numerous other things, worthwhile trade offs for having the freedoms associated with country life.
How many city people, with all their tax paid comforts, can open a window and shoot a varmint without being hauled off to jail?
They exist where there is not enough tax base to support a full time fire department, in areas without enough people to need a full time fire department.
We have one where I live, our closest full time fire department is 50 miles away so if we didn’t have volunteer fire and EMS we would not have it at all.
As a general statement not to anyone in particular but regarding the fire service/EMS relationship.
There is a lot of overlap between fire and EMS. In my area were are serviced by a private EMS organization that is an ALS provider. ALS is “Advanced Life Support” meaning they have paramedics on-board as opposed to BLS “Basic Life Support” using only EMTs.
When there is a critical life medical emergency as in a cardiac event and EMS is 15-20 minutes out, the county 911 will dispatch fire knowing that they have a number of EMTs that can quickly respond and that can and does make a difference. This is called an EMS Assist, this is the only time we as fire we respond directly to a scene.
We will usually get more appreciation for our efforts for a 15 minute EMS assist than a 4 hour dwelling fire or 2 hour MVA. Good thing we do this for ourselves because if it were for customer appreciation no one would volunteer.
And that brings me to another topic. When asked why we do this volunteering by politicians or the media we tend to say we are “giving back” to the community. This is complete BS. Speaking for myself and many others, I do this because I personally love to do it. There is tremendous satisfaction in arriving at a scene of total pandemonium and restoring order, even if there is much loss in property or lives. The minute it stops being fun I quit.
Insurance companies rate neighborhoods based on the level of fire service. This is called your ISO and it has a direct influence on insurance rates. The ISO takes into consideration the number and availability of assets and water supply. So if your roof or boiler needs to replaced your insurance rate will be higher. Same as with your ISO and they take into consideration the average time your local fire company responds to their calls. So having a robust fire department saves everyone money in the long run.
One last thing and I’m not again responding o anyone in particular. In my fire district I mentioned up thread that we cover a portion of the PA turnpike. We have the honor of responding to some very nasty calls on that roadway.
To give an example of just what it can be like we had a call not too long ago where a patient was seriously injured, I mean I really don’t know how the patient survived. This was bad.
We have not heard one word from family or friends for our efforts. The location and scope of the call was big, we did patient rescue and coordinated/manned two (2) landing zones for flight. While I’m both happy to provide the service and wish nothing but complete healing for the patient, for all of my time and efforts for a 3 hour call not a word of thanks but I did have several sleepless nights following the incident. So maybe that’s my thanks?
Growing up in small towns in Minnesota I would race on my bicycle to the fire station on my bike as soon as I heard the whistle. Big excitement.
Had to be careful not to get run over by a fire man on his way.
Because my small unincorporated town has no mayor, taxes, or other city services. We (the VFD) used to operate on the largess of the people who would come to our annual fund raiser (BBQ, auction, etc.) and filing insurance claims on house fires, etc.
Now, since we have established a taxing entity (Emergency Services District) with established boundaries, we get a set amount of tax money.
Instead of having a 20 year old pumper truck, a Vietnam era 5,000 tanker truck given from the USAF to to the US Forestry Service, and on loan to us, and a pair of F350 grass fire-fighting trucks, we have almost $1.8 million dollars in new equipment for an area that is growing in number of residents.
There are no fire hydrants where I live. None. If the fire department doesn’t bring the water with them, they have to draft it out of pools, ditches, ponds, or where ever they can.
In a town of a hundred people would you expect that town to hire a full time fire department and pay millions of dollars in salaries, benefits, pensions, work comp insurance and fire equipment and maintenance in order to maybe put out one dwelling fire every 5 years?
Frankly we need more volunteer positions that are now being filled with government union workers who care more about their salaries and pensions than about doing their job.
There’s been a return to those days in some wildfire-prone California jurisdictions recently. Insurance companies paying private entities to spray retardant on the properties they protect. Goes around -— Comes Around.
my town is less than 500 and we just built a brandy new firehouse
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.