So how do fire departments work?

[Loach]

@Spiderman

Nationwide, volunteer service is way down; more demands on people’s time (multiple gig jobs, scheduled kid activities - all the same things that factor into people getting married later & buying their first house older than we did or especially when our parents did), physically tough, dangerous, coupled with more training requirements, & the drop-what-you’re-doing-& run nature of emergencies it’s very tough to get enough bodies; that’s why mutual aid is an everyday occurrence, not that rare multi-alarm fire. We’ll take what we can get, including on the administrative side. If you only want to be an exterior FF or only do engine company stuff, that’s better than no body there.

Seems to me the main limiting factor is having people that work in town. Calls don’t just come in during the evening or weekends. It’s why our DPW had a lot of volunteer fire fighters. They could drop everything and head to calls. They also weren’t retaliated against by their employer. It’s the reason why my town had to abandon the volunteer rescue squad model. They had to be manned 24/7 and there just weren’t enough people to do it.

The drivers of the trucks tended to be the old guys who had been with the department for decades. They were too old to be throwing on gear and going into a working fire but they could drive and knew how to work the truck apparatus.

There has been talk about chiefs but I don’t think anyone has mentioned how you become a chief. I don’t know how it is in all states but in mine all department officers are voted on by the members. There are also fire commissioners that are voted on by the public. The commissioners have no role in fire fighting. The deal with things like budget and procuring equipment.

[Spiderman]

@Loach

Calls don’t just come in during the evening or weekends. It’s why our DPW had a lot of volunteer fire fighters. They could drop everything and head to calls. They also weren’t retaliated against by their employer.

Yup, if I’m in the office, I don’t even think about going, just due to my time to get there. On days when I’m at home it’s mental calculation of what am I doing now that needs to be done soon, what upcoming calls do I have, etc.

@Loach

The drivers of the trucks tended to be the old guys who had been with the department for decades.

In my state, & I think nationwide there is an exemption for drivers. If it wasn’t an emergency vehicle you would absolutely need to have a CDL to drive one. Our ladder is in the same weight neighborhood as a fully loaded tractor trailer; stopping & turning are very different than your family sedan. While we don’t need CDLs there is an internal driver training/certification process, including qualifying on each piece of apparatus from smallest to largest.

@Loach

There has been talk about chiefs but I don’t think anyone has mentioned how you become a chief. I don’t know how it is in all states but in mine all department officers are voted on by the members. There are also fire commissioners that are voted on by the public. The commissioners have no role in fire fighting. The deal with things like budget and procuring equipment.

NY also has elected fire commissioners.
We only vote on our chief; he then chooses the officers under him. There are a number of classes/certifications one needs to have to even run for chief, & at least a subset of them to be a senior officer.
Our chief gets a multi-thousand $ stipend & a vehicle but there is a lot of (paper) work, & planning & tracking of things & meetings beyond just running calls.

[Spiderman]

All this doesn’t come cheap, either!

In my town the biggest expense is PD; they did a study on FD & how much it would cost/what we are saving the town. To have a fully paid FD, the budget would go up by about 30%! In a 24/7/365 environment you have to figure 4.x bodies per position

The 4 bodies is

• Day shift on
• Night shift on
• Day shift off
• Night shift off

While the .x bodies is

• Training / required refresh/recertification
• PTO
• Injuries
  all of which is made up thru some combo of overtime, extra, floater bodies (especially in a big city) &/or part-timers.

Gear cost for one firefighter:
Protecting lives isn’t cheap—here’s the current 𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚 cost to fully equip 𝗢𝗡𝗘 firefighter:

𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗲𝗮𝗿:
Turnout Gear (coat & pants): $3,500 – $5,000
Firefighting Boots: $400 – $600
Gloves & Hood: $150 – $250
Helmet: $300 – $600
SCBA (Air Pack & Mask): $7,000 – $10,000
𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗲𝗮𝗿: $11,500 – $16,500+

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿—NFPA 1851 regulations require firefighting gear to be replaced 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝟭𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀, regardless of condition, to ensure firefighter safety!

Add another $1500 if you need woodland firefighting gear in your district & $2000 for water rescue gear per person.

Then there’s all of the equipment itself & VC has gotten to apparatus with cost of a new truck almost doubling in the past couple of years, as well as lead time now taking 3, 4, or even 5 years to get a new piece of apparatus once ordered.