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Diference: Rural vs. Urban Volly
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on
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There are several differences.
One usually has a funny accent.
Both have a chance of getting shot but one by hunter other by gang member.
One has hydrants that stay in one place the other brings a hydrant with them.
One responds to the firehouse, the other to the fire.
The biggest fires for one are higher while the other are wider.
The chief during a working alarm say "gimme another engine" while the other says "I need another engine"
One response is delayed because of traffic on the road and the other delayed because of farm animals on the road.
One gets an address of 3333 Benton Ct the other gets an address of "Uncle Bens house past the old oak tree next to Mables red house".
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Permalink Reply by Michael Bates on
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water supply!!!!
I've served in both urban and rural volunteer depts. i spent 12 years at a fire company in the NJ suburbs of NYC, they are financed well by the town and have overall good support from the residents. nice new equipment and apparatus, and a fire hydrant every 500 feet.
I currently serve in a small rural company on the border of NJ and PA....we have very little finacial support from the township, and the residents don't seem to get involved, in fact most of the firefighters are from other surrounding towns. we have just enough equipment to outfit our trucks, and we bring our water with us, a 3000 gallon tanker, and two pumpers with 1000 gallons each. we also rely much more on mutual aid, and not just for water.
Both companies run about the same amount of calls annually, about 200, but the rural co. I would say is bussier we cover a good size piece of interstate and respond to about 75-100 MVA's a year on the highway. In the Burbs' the population was triplethe amount as the rural.and the response area was a tenth of the size. but we responded to about 75-100 activated alarms annualy.In the burbs we had more working fires, in the rural we routinely respond to so many different types of calls,HazMat, water rescue, search and rescue(first due in a National park, and a state park), MVA's, structures, farm and industrial emergencies, car fires, Wildland fires, and just about anything else you can imagine.
Other than that it pretty similar;)
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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on
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Water supply is definatly a big difference. Other then that, you have to think that there arent as many urban vollie dept's because population is so high that either combination or paid departments are required. I think most departments are right about where mine is. We serve an actual town of about 3,500 people that is blanketed in hydrants and we also serve a rural area surronding the town where we are truckin the water.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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The first two posters hit on a lot of the major points.
Response time is substantially longer in the rural areas because of the distance from home to fire house, and fire house to the scene. In my department, travel time from the fire house to the furthest areas of the territory can be 10 minutes under ideal conditions and much longer if heavy weather is happening.
In rural areas you have much less chance of a fire being discovered by passers-by or neighbors. Sometimes the first sign of a structure fire is that column of black smoke or glow in the sky. Hence the sometimes-used term "cellar savers."
In my urban vollie experience we responded to reports of house fires which turned out to be good intent calls. When I moved to the sticks, a reported house fire was a house fire, without exception.
In urban areas there are usually neighboring departments within 2 to 4 miles apart. In rural areas they can be 6, 8 or more miles apart. Even if you call for mutual aid when you leave your house, it takes an eternity for it to show up.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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That is so funny, and scarily so true in so many ways!!!!
Cal volume has to be a major difference as well.
I recall often talking to members of other Units abour our job stats- they were talking of having a busy year with 30 calls and we were topping 800+ !!!!!
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Permalink Reply by morris washburn on
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To me ! NO,there is no difference.we do the same job,we have to leave our paid jobs & family to do this .A lot of ppl. say there is, like your redneck firefighter well I have been here in the south and have not seen any thing different ,other than it gets hot in the summer .we run more wild fires than house and cars . but do come across afew meth labs. And I am proud to be able to work with thiese folks !!
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Permalink Reply by Brian Evans on
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You said there is no difference then you mention several differences..... I am confused?
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Permalink Reply by Steve Koning on
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As a Rural Vol.FF I must say I saw an absolute picture of bush-boy logic. During a nasty bit of forest fires that threatened Kelowna, BC, Canada all hands were called out to fight a city on fire. Crews from all over attended. The boys and girls from Beaverly, just outside Prince George, BC were quick to answer the call. They were very mobile and found that the bathroom facilities were not always where they were. They did manage to track down a porta-potty which they tied, using fire knots of course, to the back of the older cab-over pumper they had brought down.
Just to prove they had a sense of humor, one of them made up a nice cardboard sign and hung it on the door. It covered the Beaverly with a Beverly. If you can laugh at yourself, you're still winning.
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What do you mean by that?
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Never mind... I forget. :o)
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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Urban means a city or town. Rural is in the country. I assume you meant suburban which is between the two. Yes there is a difference. The types of fires are different. In the rural area you will have barns, sheds & hay fields with the occasional residence fire. The rescue of live stock is often necessary in a rural area. The houses are old and have small rooms usually of balloon construction or mobile homes. The heating systems are often propane or fuel oil which can be a factor in a fire depending on how far the tanks are from the buildings.
We rarely have an MVA in a rural area. If there is, its usually a roll over or a farm equipment accident. We get a lot of calls for MVAs in the suburban area. There are more structure fires of all types. There are no schools in the rural area, no businesses. Both are in the suburban section of our township.
The response times are longer. In some of our rural areas we can't take certian trucks or they have to take a longer route simply because they are too heavy or too wide for the roads. Terrain is much different between the two areas.
In the rural area you will have to worry about water supply. There are no fire hydrants but you might find a lake or pond to draft from. If there is a lot of rural area the FD will need tankers and portable tanks. Which will be used in the suburban area at times but not as often.
As for training; we prepare for everything from farm accidents to boating accidents and any type of FIRE you can imagine. Our area is 36sq miles that 30 yrs ago was predominately farms and orchards. The land was sold off in developments near the major highway increasing the population dramatically. The farther away from the highway the older farms still exist. They aren't as big. Some of them have new homes and barns constructed on them but they still take the same length of time to get there.
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