The term volunteer bothers me. We are actually "paid on call". Mostly it bothers me cause ppl seem to think we are not "real" firefighters. Like somehow we dont attend "real" fires, MVC's, medical aids, etc. Like somehow our fires are not as hot or we dont have any training. In my opinion being a "volunteer" is actually more difficult! we have other jobs too! Emergency's can happen anytime. We are on call 24-7. Our "waiting for calls" never comes to an end. We are expected to save life, property, and environment with speed and efficiency. We never know how many members will show up (which means we often work twice as hard) or who those members will be. we must be jacks of all trades. one day im entry team, the next pump op, the next tanker shuttle, the next rescue team, the next medical team, and on and on... my hall training is very specific and tough. we are working through 1001's....i do my best to enlighten ppl... anyone else have this frustration?
Well I must do it because I Love It. I get $8 per call. That might cover the fuel to the station. I give back to my community in many ways, but this is my favorite. Being a Firefighter is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I agree with everything you said except for the "paid on call" there are still some departments that go unpaid no matte if they go on call or not, namely my department we do not get paid for anything.
Permalink Reply by ZACH on February 2, 2011 at 4:13pm
Yea i agree my depart isnt paid either we do have depart here in MA that do pay per call and trianings but with the budjets getting close to nothing alot of depart cant afford it
i run on a vol department i would not trade my guys for any one. vol means oncall all year day or night. we live an hour away from a paid full time department. they try and get my fd to get the same gear and change are sop's. i have heared that they have stayed out of a house fire because they said it was to dangerous to go in
Yea, I get Paid $8. for each call. Doesn't matter if I get turned around at the station or spend 10 hours on scene. I donate it back to our members assoc. We are trying to raise money in case 1 of our volunteers gets hurt on duty. For those of us that are self employed we tend to worry about how to pay the bills. We also donate to the department for needed rescue items that don't make the top of the budget list. This year we are getting an Equinox SnoBulance, as we have a ton of skiers and snowmachiners in district all winter.
the term volunteer to me means a brave hearted person taking time out of his/her life to go out and save your home and your property or family from fire or any other emergencies we are real firefighters just our payment is the appriciation of the ones we save, and yes some of us are "paid on call" but you are still volunteer and i think you should be proud of the name volunteer FireFighter.
i can agree with staying out of a house because of overly-dangerous conditions, but you have to look at everything as a whole, what were the specifics of that incident? Anyone who is going to run into every burning home regardless of whats going on is blatently suicidal. I don't care if you have 25 years on in one of the busiest cities or 2 years in a slow rural setting, some homes are simply not worth the risk. if fire is blowing out of every hole and no-one is inside, you better believe that a lot of departments will not commit to an interior attack.
risk a lot to save a lot
risk a little to save a little
risk nothing to save nothing
risk benefit analysis is something that every department and every company needs to look at before committing their equipment into an IDLH atmosphere.