"Reserve" vs "Volunteer" in combination departments

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by kris on October 23, 2009 at 8:27pm

although i dont know of any reserves around here its basicly your paid or not.

most departments in my area dont give you incentives or anything ur just that volunteering we might get a t shirt or the dept will rent to us a blue and white light but when u get off the light goes back to the fd.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andrew Dalgarno on October 23, 2009 at 9:03pm

Here (Canada), we are paid when on call (emergency, training, work around the station, etc.) so that we are then employees and covered under insurance, worker's comp, etc. So we aren't a "volunteer" department in the truest sense of the word, although most around here refer to their departments as volunteer.

Andrew

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stephen on October 23, 2009 at 10:18pm

in australia a volunteer (firefighters, surf life savers, charity workers etc...) are covered by there "employer" in my case the CFA. a volunteer is considered an employee therefore covered be the same laws that cover you in any other work place, from the time the pager goes off to the time the calls finished including anytime spent at the station.

as the reserve issue i don't think considering vols as a reserve force is doing the vols credit as alot of combined brigades are mostly volunteers. as for the standard issue i do believe that the volunteers are atleast the more experienced members should be upto the same or similar standard as perms if your working in the same area. (here we have differnet qualification levels wildfire firefighter (minimum to be in the CFA) Low structure fire fighters for areas that are less urbanised rural areas (thats my current qualification) and structure firefighters for urban areas where factories and larger stractures are common.) these are the areas that perms are usually located therefore volunteers should be upto the same level.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Auxman on October 23, 2009 at 9:21pm

Just to be clear, the primary reason I am suggesting this is the requirement to meet the same standards as the full-time career firefighters and not so much the fact that in some departments these folks receive some compensation. So, lets not do the old "are compensated volunteers, really volunteers?" argument.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ashfire on October 24, 2009 at 6:41pm

I had heard where the City of Baltimore, MD had reserve firefighters who were city employees from other depts in the city.
This was something that started back around World War 2 with the dept of Civil Defense when there was a shortage of firefighters. I had heard they still have a couple of reserve firefighters in the city but they are not a replacment for regular firefighters and not allow inside a burning building.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robert Grove on October 25, 2009 at 11:08pm

andrew what I would classify your department would either be concidered, fully paid, just not living at the station or ppc( paid per call)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Greg Beck on November 3, 2009 at 1:20am

In Kentucky, Firefighters come in many forms. Some departments use true volunteers in which their members recieve no compensation. Others, such as my department, use firefighters as paid on call (in which your training level must meet that of a full time staff firefighter ie 400hr level FF1 and FF2). Other departments mix and match duties in which your fulltime paid but you fill other duties. Some departments the career firefighters are also the city works crew. In others, the firefighters are actually dispatchers that become drivers and officers on rigs when a call comes in. In quite a few airports the firefighters are actually police officers that work their first 8 hrs on patrol and the next 16 as an ARFF.

▶ Reply to This