Less Vol companys by 2015

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Permalink Reply by Chris Sterling on March 1, 2009 at 5:04pm

Unfortunatley, it seems to be the trend. Less people are volunteering, and less money is available to Vol. companies. You can recruit, and promote till your blue in the face, but the reallity of it all is, most people won't do something for nothing. As far as money, if it ain't there, it ain't there! I cringe every time I see the fuel gauge go below a half a tank in any of the equipment. We, sofar, are quite fortunate. We aren't in any real danger yet, but we could certainly use more firefighters, firefighters that are truley committed to staying around, and doing the job! Firefighters that don't just join so they can put a light on they're car just to say, LOOK AT ME!!!

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Scott Elsner on June 14, 2009 at 3:38pm

I agree with you 110 percent! We could also use more fire fighters, Who are committed to staying around and doing the hard labor. As for the Lights on the POV's (personally owned Vehicles) we do not allow that in our department. As for being replaced with paid departments, my County and City couldn't afford it.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Holdiman on June 15, 2009 at 1:06am

the matter of the money is how you budget things its not about having enough its how you spend it. i find that most departments that run out of money or have money problems just havnt budgeted there funds correctly

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Permalink Reply by Chris Rampulla on March 2, 2009 at 5:10pm

With the percentage of vol. firefighters totaling 75% of all firefighters, I think we will be safe. There are still to many of us that are dedicated to the job. I also agree with the statement that money is getting tight but all of that will turn around eventually. Until then there are grants and other funds to look into.

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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on March 4, 2009 at 7:10pm

The number of departments might be the same, but the number of members WILL go down. People just don't have the time or the money. I know several of my firefighters have second jobs, have to conserve gas or can't afford a babysitter. Not only that but most small volunteer departments run mainly off donations or a small county budget. The public don't have the money to give like they use to, and when county governments have to cut budgets what do you think will be the first to go? Hopefully by twenty fifteen the economy will be on it's feet and this will be reversed. Stay safe.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Gaudio on March 6, 2009 at 12:32am

It could be a possibility but I see the opposite. Money is tight now and communities are struggling just to keep a road crew on. I'm hearing that one paid/vol. department (Uniontown Fire Dept.) here in PA, may go completely volunteer because there is no money for the firefighters pay, retirement, etc. They layed off some career firemen and I don't think they'll bring em back. The city of Pittsburgh keeps closing companies because they're running out of money to pay them. What may happen is consolidation. There is so many volunteer departments just within a mile or so, these small towns will force a merger which makes sence. Nobody needs 6 fire departments in a 3.0 square mile town. In that case, fewer stations but more manpower. I can't imagine these municipalities paying for a service that costs them $0.00 now.

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Permalink Reply by paul michael komandt on May 16, 2009 at 9:41pm

I agree with this. If you are getting the services for what they think is free (taxes fund my dept) why would they pass a levy to allow staffing with the economy the way it is.

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Permalink Reply by Edward Stephens on March 15, 2009 at 2:06am

it's a shame but that's the way it is going to be.we ahve to many of us fighting each other instead of standing up as one

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Permalink Reply by Kody Odom on March 15, 2009 at 11:12pm

this sucks

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Permalink Reply by Dave on March 16, 2009 at 9:13pm

Probably very true. I can say from personal experience that, just look at requirements for training.
Fire fighter 1 here in Nebraska, takes 2 days per week, 4 hrs per night, for at least , 4-5 months. On top of that Firefighter 2 is coming around, and it will take almost 1 year to complete. That comes from 2 of the part-time instructors we are lucky to have within our own department. Like the others have said too, it's tight budgets, and a nother problem we have had locally for a long time, is, membership. Nobody wants to give up hours at a time any more for fighting, then come back clean up and wash hose, trucks and everything else. It hurts even more when your district 200 square mile area.

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Permalink Reply by Tim "snowman"hileman on March 20, 2009 at 11:39am

everybody stop and think after all the training required to become a ff/paramedic. which we all know most dept's prefer to hire would it be logical to think. we are looking at this backwards the way the economy is right now. cities/dept's very soon will not be able to afford as many or for that matter any ff/paramedic's at 40,000 to 80,000 per year. some dept's will probably go back to all volly while others may stay combo and still some may stay just paid. this will probably depend on what cities will be able to afford. bottom line combo and volly dept's are cheaper.

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Permalink Reply by strtcopr on March 20, 2009 at 12:36pm

When and where did you receive this information? I'd love to see the article etc...

I think that there should be consolidation of services and maybe more combo departments. The volunteer service in my general area,while adequately funded, varies widely when speaking about the types and quality of services provided.

They say that every dark cloud has a silver lining, well maybe the silver lining in this ''storm'' will be the volunteer fire service ''right sizing''.

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