From what I've heard, most Australian volunteer stations are like that. More or less social clubs for in-between responses and official fire department duties. Most members are social and only respond if its a multiple alarms or big situations.
There's a pile of BS if ever I've seen it! I don't know where you get your info from tyler, but that is a total wankfest right there....
So you've spoken to one and that makes them all the same? When you've done a bit more informed research on the topic ,why not come back and share your years of wisdom with us?
Tyler, for someone that doesn't have much time in, you really don't have room to talk!! Need some seasoning first, to know what and when one needs to be giving advise!
In the U.S., you will commonly find departments with 30-40 staff members, and 2-5 trucks. Many times, staff do not ride in the trucks in groups to calls, they go to scenes in their personal vehicles, while only a few may go to the station to get the trucks.
Many volunteer stations have no one living at the station - so everyeone must respond from their primary jobs or their homes. Often the first firefighter to get to the station will drive the truck to the scene - he may not wait at the station for more people to show up to ride along with him. Instead, getting the truck to the scene is more important than having the truck full of staff. Additionally, if 5 guys show up at the station - that means 5 drivers to take 5 trucks to the scene; instead of having 5 guys piled into 1 truck.
And if you have 40 staff members, even at full capacity at a call on any given day, you still may only have 30 staff show up - since there will always be a few that are caught up with other duties at any one given time - children, injury, primary job, vacation, out-of-town, etc. It is almost unheard of to get every single staff member at any given call or event, no matter how big.
The largest turn-out is often fire fighter funerals (their dept or another local one), and even then a 2-3 members (out of 40) probably won't be able to attend.
When you read about people not having enough staff to cover calls - those are the days you want more staff - even if you have only a few trucks. Trucks will never meet the needs of the people alone - people must meet the needs of the people.
Tyler, you need to think about what you write on these forums.
This is yet another example of you making generalizations and uninformed assumptions. get out into the big world, get some time up and then weigh in with some responses that don't inflame people, piss people off and don't represent the emergency services in bad light.
Whilst I don't deny that there are some, that does not mean most as you posted. And BTW, the number of members versus the number of trucks is not a logical ratio to work from- my old Unit had 100 members, 45 on pager and only 3 trucks and responded to an average of 800 calls per year. I guess by your reasoning though, it must have been a social club.
Then Tyler, if that's all that you see in those departments.....why bother....? I also should point out that many, many Departments have members that come by here...How many do you think would appreciate the way you stereotype Volunteers...? Now how many do you think would welcome you into their Firehouse...? If you are evr up this way stop by....I'll give you a chance to try and keep up with an old man on a fire scene.....but, bring a note from your Mommy so its OK with her......
Permalink Reply by Nate on August 25, 2010 at 5:53pm
I am not going to try and generalize, as I am by no means an expert on the subject, but for my department, you have to be 18 years old and FF1 to be on a fire scene. Now when I went through, there were 16-17 year old kids going through as well, but they were getting it in order to have it when they are finally old enough to become an active member of their dept.
Permalink Reply by Nate on August 25, 2010 at 6:04pm
I completely agree. For my department, we are combination. To work full/part time, you have to be 21, have a class B license, and be completely driver/pump operations trained. My station houses 3 full time, and the rest are volunteer. we respond POV to the scene, do the job, then go to the station to put everything back in order. Now for an all-volunteer dept. usually the rule is 18 and FF1 for an active status as a firefighter, but state law says you have to have a class B license or higher to drive a truck back from an emergency call.