Belonging to two fire departments

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Permalink Reply by doug on June 30, 2009 at 3:19pm

hey Jeff Ive seen it work. i have some friends that were on 3 at once but that was all they did. the only time it was bad was when they went on calls were mutual aid was call in and the other 2 department responded. they got bugged about which department they should of responded with. it can work as long as you can keep them separate as far as the rules and the stuff like at this station this how we do this and so forth. just don't play them against each other.

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Permalink Reply by Shanna Davis on June 30, 2009 at 3:44pm

We have two people who belong to two different volunteer departments. Personally, I don't know how they do it but they are young and working on medical degrees so they want the experience. These particular individuals tend to not be around much for anything but their specified shift. They are too busy to be involved in many other trainings or volunteer activities.

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Permalink Reply by robbie sledge on June 30, 2009 at 5:26pm

wow i dont see how that would even work out. which has priority over the other???

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Permalink Reply by John Menchen on August 7, 2009 at 10:28pm

The only way I could think someone could pull this off is if they were paid by another city, commuted to that other city for their shift time, and then volunteered with their hometown when they weren't working. Some cities will let you do that if you live close enough.
Volunteering for two would be impossible, and I don't know if being on two municipal payrolls is allowed--it might be, if the down times didn't interfere with each other. But, three days in City A, another three in City B (for example), when would you rest? Even 9-to-5 civilians get the weekend!
Being a volunteer for one fire department is still very impressive on a resume--anything else is overkill.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Scott Elsner on June 30, 2009 at 6:28pm

Doesn't bother me one bit. My fire Chief belongs to Caldwell Fire and Rescue, and Cade Lake Vol. Fire department. A small community about three to five minutes away from Caldwell. He responds to the one that goes out first, If Cade Lake drops a call after he leaves with Caldwell on a run, he doesn't turn around and go to the other. Same as if he responds with Cade Lake first and We pop a call.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Klaene on July 3, 2009 at 11:16am

I do , Chief of one and Captain for the other. I am Chief of the volunteer department that serves the area where I live. I work about 25 miles away and volunteer with the department where I work. It is a very remote area and they need all the help they can get. I am very careful to remind myself that when I am with the second department I am not the chief. It can be difficult and times and also extremely frustrating but it has worked for nearly 18 years so I guess it is OK

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Permalink Reply by Kirk on July 3, 2009 at 12:20pm

if they can do both more power to them. i know being on one is enough for me. we have to make training, 40precent of the station calls each month as well is station training and meetings, plus truck checks that are asign to you.

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Permalink Reply by Curtis Flax on July 14, 2009 at 10:10pm

I am part of 2 Volunteer Fire stations and 1 Volunteer EMS station. But its all in the same town/County We have 1 County Station 1 City Station (Seperated) and 1 EMS unit (Owned by the County) With the different training dates it can be kind of hectic but call wise we dont get called out a lot on the City.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on July 24, 2009 at 7:48pm

Every Volunteer Department needs help i say if your able then why not

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Permalink Reply by chris jarvis on July 24, 2009 at 11:45pm

how would a person have time to deal with 2 dept.? how far apart? response time? commitment? or does it look good on paper?

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Permalink Reply by Holly on August 7, 2009 at 12:09am

I don't see an issue with belonging to 2 dept. as long as the person can give time to both. Many of the guys at my station belong to 2. The only time I have really seen problems is when the FF becomes an officer at one or both stations. There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes.

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Permalink Reply by Shanna Davis on August 11, 2009 at 2:59pm

One of our volunteer members has a full time job (not fire/ems related), he works part time for the city paid fire department and he volunteers with us. I absolutely do not know how he does it.
We don't see him for many calls. He's coming in and putting his name down to get credit for calls so he meets his call volume but he's not actually running many calls.
Another member works a full-time job (not fire/ems related), works a part time ARFF job at the airport and volunteers with us. He seems to manage it all pretty well.
Another member volunteers for us as well as another volunteer department across town that allows anyone residing within the county to volunteer. She does her weekly night shift with us and she does her weekly night shift with the other department plus goes to college part time and works part time.
I think it just depends on the individual and how they manage their time as to how well it works.

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