[AFD660]

Im a paid firefighter.. and my experience with volunteers are postive, that is when they show up. being a volunteer they get to pick and choose what calls they go on. alot of them dont go to medical calls because its not exciting, would you want a loved one not to be responded to because you only have volunteers??? they go to fires though but it does take them at least 10 minutes to respond, they have to drive from their house or wherever to a fire station then transfer their gear to the fire truck, maybe wait on another volunteer to show up or whatever.. show up on scene then get bunkered out.

another thing about volunteers is alot of them just like spraying water on fire... believe it or not it is a technical job, more than just putting water on fire. if you use too much... water damage can spread throughout the whole house instead of just being contained to one side. theres more examples but thats just one. ( i used to be a volunteer, and when im not on shift i'm a volunteer at a county station)

i do agree with you that some do get paid a ton of money for doing nothing.. but thats also in the private sector... no offense to anybody but lets look at mechanics... some places charge 80 an hour. quite a bit in my book... the fire dept is the only dept that i can think of that "makes money" when they roll on medical calls and do transport like my city does then the transport bill goes toward the city, for the city. so basically we are working to pay ourselves. some days we have no calls... some days we have 20 calls with no break, not to eat, not to take a NO.2.. nothing. but maybe some places can do with cuts and lessening of wages. but thats a whole other can of worms...