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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 Jeff Pearson on
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Non-paid volunteers show up because they love the job and "want" to do it. When volunteers start getting paid, members show up for that reason....pay. You get a crew that doesn't work as well together and gets less done. Any department that is going to go to paid, must take a very close look at their members and decide who is staying and who is not.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Non-paid volunteers show up because they love the job and "want" to do it. When volunteers start getting paid, members show up for that reason....pay.
Not really. I'm a career FF and get paid and still love doing the job because I "want" to do it as well. Just because there is some type of monetary stipend does not mean that people no longer "want" to do the job, it is an extra incentive to do so.
You get a crew that doesn't work as well together and gets less done
How do you figure?
Any department that is going to go to paid, must take a very close look at their members and decide who is staying and who is not.
Just because there is compensation involved doesn't mean the same challenges facing staffing on volly depts doesn't exist. If a dept decides that they should look in creating a monetary stipend to retain personnel or an incentive to recruit new members, then typically there is already an issue at hand with the current dept makeup.
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Permalink Reply by Matt Marderosian on
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Even Paid on Call Depts have issues with manpower we can not make a living off the calls we get.
Most calls we are lucky to have 4-6 FF's on a scene.
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Permalink Reply by Patti Walz on
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Here is two for the record....
I agree with you. There is a big difference between FDNY/DCFD and my rural station.
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Aaron....
I want to know what you are taking....
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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Training for any firefighter, career and volunteer, is different for differnt areas of the country. I know some volunteers that have more training than I do and others that lack in training and have retaken classes again and again because they can't grasp what they are taught.
Some firefighters have taken collage fire service courses to better themselves. Our area has a county and state fire training facilities then there is the National Fire Academy. All of these are open to everyone to take a offered course. There will be a required cost to take classes sometimes that can be paid by a firefighter's dept or can be take off income taxes.
I will respect anyone who is willing to take a class, siminar, or long course to better themselves.
They are working to move up the ladder and lead their team. No matter who they are.
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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WOW
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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I'm thinking that a HIGH percentage of volunteers want to be/wish they were paid firefighters.
I'm thinking that a HIGH percentage of volunteers think that being a volunteer firefighter is something akin to being divinely inspired/directed/chosen.
I'm thinking that the volunteers that want to be/wish they were paid firefighters are the same volunteers that think they have been divinely inspired/directed/chosen.
Can anyone say cognitive dissonance?
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Completely inaccurate, Jeff. When you have a career crew that works together all the time, they get way more training and call time together than a volly crew, develop better team chemistry, and subsequently become more productive and better performers, both individually and as a group.
Most career firefighters I've known - and that includes literally hundreds - do the job simply because they love it and they are proud of their ability to do it well.
There are lots of studies that show that money has very little to do with motivating workers, including firefighters.
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Jack, Ben, 55, Did you see that Aaron pulled his post on this subject. Also, Edmund is back Jack!
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Permalink Reply by Robby Stables on
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OK Guys/Girls
The topic is not if we want or should or can or are career wanabees or .....
The topic is should volunteers get paid. If you are a POC or Part time or Auxillary or whatever term you use you have a regular job what ever that may be and you let your name stand to help out the community in times of need, Fire, EMS, Natural Disaster etc. If anyone is looking to the POC ranks as a job and do it for th pay then look somewhere else. I am a POC, Volunteer and as a Captain I get about 15 dollars an hour while I am on a call, we ger 120 calls per year that we are paged for at an average of 3 hours a a call that is 360 hours, really!!! Like I posted earlier, it is enough to go out for supper a few times buy some fire t-shirts, and get more gadgets for my gear, pays for a few fun things and that is it. so to say we do itfor the money is goofy and to say we all want to be Career - some of us maybe, I havd aspirations about 10 years ago, did really well on the exam top 3 actualy but my shoulders gave out in the physical, 5 years and two rebuilt shoulders later I am still a POC Volly and PROUD to serve my community doing what I love to do. THAT IS THE KEY - WE ALL do it for the love of the Fire Service, Career, POC, Volunteer we are all firefighters and all do it because we love it. The compensation is a nice pat on the back
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