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Should Volunteer Firefighters Get Paid for Calls?
70% of the nations firefighters are volunteers who risk their lives everytime a call goes out. Some say yes because of the risk and some say no because it was a choice made to do the job, what do you think?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rebekka Arcand on
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not up here in South Branch aka Goodar Township. the board up here lies about us getting paid to the community. the other depts in our area do get paid per call.
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it would be nice to at least have a small check to cover our mileage to the dept in the POVs. since we r the ones using our personal vehicles to run in.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Stikeleather on
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my department currently reimburses us volunteers so long as we run 25% of the calls. however, due to the lack of volunteers answering the "BS" calls, we may go back to volunteers being strictly volunteers(we have three paid FFs 7 days a week and two on friday and saturday nights). As far as im concerned, i didnt get into this for the money, i didnt know about the money until after i started, so it wouldnt make me want to leave if we did get rid of it. BUT that check at the end of the year is nice!
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Permalink Reply by Patti Walz on
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As a volunteer for me area we get paid for each call we go on, I think it is like between $5 and $15 a call depending on the call (Firefighter vs EMT)
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Permalink Reply by Travis Skinner on
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i think if your dept has the funding and enough money to do so then yes but small town depts that dont have the funding or anything shouldnt the keyword there is VOLUNTEER my county fire dept is paid on call but they are all volunteers they get paid i think it is like 10 dollars a call and they run a average 300-600 calls a year im on a volunteer fire dept and we are strictly volunteer we dont get paid .
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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Then you would not be a volunteer, if you work for the low amount they would pay you what kind of a job is that?
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Permalink Reply by David Walker on
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Well my department is one that "compensates" their volunteers for gas if they respond to a call. Every six months we get checks. I would still volunteer even if we didn't get paid to do it. Even working full time I have come to notice that nothing beats the thrill of volunteer firefighting.
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The checks that we receive are compensation checks to cover gas, turn-out/uniform cleaning/maintenance.
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Aaron your post sounds quite ANGRY! If you get paid something you are not by definition a volunteer. Another issue, you brought it up as you claimed to be a "brother", volunteers are NOT the same as paid Firefighters. You are saying that a volunteer/paid on call FF from Pumpkin Patch Iowa is the same as a FF from FDNY or DCFD or any city of any size for that matter, then you have no clue what we (the Paid Firefighters) do for a living or how we do it. Some voulunteers, a very small minority fight fire like paid FF, most do not. So, "brother", be PROUD but know there is a difference.
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You make a good point Patti (strange I am agreeing with you, I will try my best to not let it happen again!:), being compensated for fuel, work clothes, training etc. is not being paid.
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I will make a note on my calendar. :)
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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As far as the "career" firefighters having the guts to say that your a volunteer and if you wanna get paid join a career dept....bite me
How about going back and taking a look at who is saying such things, typically another volly. If you look at the responses of most career folks they are saying that if you are getting paid, then you really are not a volunteer, it just makes you a paid on call or retained FF. Reading comprehension.
Having a paid, full-time, fully staffed fire dept. costs money. Its taxes that, for alot of communities, people cannot afford to pay.
Yes, it does cost money and there are many places that can not afford to have career personnel. However, many of those same places have difficulty getting people to volunteer as well. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
Volunteers are NO DIFFERENT than paid Firefighters, and a lot of the time....we volunteers are better trained, because we have to be.
Now I'm going to throw the put up or shut up flag here. Volunteers are better trained????? So what is whith all the talk on here about volunteers complaining about training standards and increased training times? What is up with those complaining about getting their fellow members to show up for trainings? Give me a break on such garbage. You are essentially saying that a once or twice a month training equates to better trained FF's than those who train every shift, several times a week? It doesn't take an ad wizard to understand that is a load of crap. I will say there are some very well trained volunteers, but to make such a claim is definately a stretch and frankly does not hold water.
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