[jyl]

In some smaller cities, almost all of the municipal budget is consumed by having their own fire and police departments. When those cities go bankrupt, they contract with neighboring cities or the county for fire and police services. I haven't seen any evidence on whether that results in better or same or worse service. My suspicion is that it is at least the same.

Here's a slightly wacky idea. Suppose every fire station in a 100 mile by 100 mile area has a full set of equipment and vehicles but is otherwise unmanned, with a helipad on the roof. There is a central command location with firefighters on duty 24x7 and two helicopters on standby, with a light plane in the air. When a fire is reported, the plane (w/ thermal imaging equipment) or the local police respond and verifies that there is a fire. Meanwhile a helicopter is ferry-ing firefighters to the nearest fire station, if the fire is verified they they take the vehicles and respond. There are also volunteer firemen throughout the area. If there are many fires, or a really huge fire, the volunteers are mobilized and respond to back up the initial response. Perhaps this way you could reduce the number of full time fire fighters by 90%, offset by the cost of several pilots (aren't pilots cheap to hire nowadays?) and aircraft. Of course, weather would be a problem . . . maybe when aircraft can't fly, some of the volunteers are mobilized to man some of the local stations.