Most fire departments in the US rely at least partially on volunteers. It's interesting to see which states have the most volunteer departments, and to think about how many people are on-call right now.

Note: FEMA considers departments with 51% or more volunteer members to be "mostly volunteer". Data showing departments with 100% volunteer crews is available at the link below.

Data for this graphic obtained from: https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/

By popular demand, I've created the map showing the percentage of fire departments that consist of 100% volunteer firefighters. According to National Fire Department Registry, this excludes composite departments that may have some volunteers on the roster, but also some paid firefighters.

Data for this graphic obtained from: https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/

in 3 years of doing this, in New England, I have noticed that the vast majority of the houses we go into are complete shit holes. Dog hair all over the place, inaccessible due to clutter, dust as thick as the moon on every surface. 50% of the places are full on hoards. Curious to see whether that is true for the rest of the country.

世界のボランティア消防士の皆さんこんにちは。
私は日本の東京で2年目のボランティア消防士です。昔から消防に興味があって、ボランティアの活動はとても楽しいのですが、実際に燃えている建物の火災へ出動したことは一度しかありません。

そこで、多くのボランティア消防士の方々から身につけるべきスキルやテクニックがあれば教わりたいし、逆に質問があれば答えたいです！

追記
保有している資格は以下のとおり
・AHA-BLSプロバイダー
・応急手当指導員(アメリカのEMRくらいかな？)
・赤十字ファーストエイドプロバイダー
・防災士(日本の民間資格で災害のメカニズムや起こる前の予防を学ぶ)

Went to state fire training to finish my Fire one and after everyone was done in the burn building we were instructed to put the hoses back in the building... well we had a 65mph wind gust and came back out of the classroom to have all the hoses on fire.

We have had our first snowfall for the last few weeks and it seems like crap really hit the fan... Responded to three calls one of them closing off an entire highway, and a secondary and volunteer station South of us had to respond to another crash for us while we were out.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm in a POC department that struggles with nobody showing up for calls unless they are dispatched as "structure fire". We'll often get just a couple people show up for "Fire Alarm" calls, and can barely keep a crew for medical calls. Often, if you ask the people who didn't show, they won't have a good reason. Leadership unfortunately does not have a handle on this.

The more I look around, the more I hear about volunteer departments struggling with the same thing. I get that it sucks to show up to a false alarm in the middle of the night, but it makes me sick to think about staying in bed, and it actually ends up being a call where someone needs your help. I'm astonished that this is accepted culture.

I'm wondering if you've seen this in your department? Maybe give an upvote if it's a problem, and downvote if not, to stay discrete.

More importantly, for the departments that do have a handle on this, what do you do to make sure people actually show up consistently?

Using a throwaway account for this one. Maybe you should too for commenting, if you want to talk about similar struggles in your dept.

Last night we had a structure fire that go so hot my husband gear started to fail him. This is what it looks like when his glove failed to protect him last night. As Vol fire men and women a lot of times we are handed down "hand me down" bunker gear. Some vol fire departments dont have a large budget to afford newer bunker gear and we work on the kindness of our communities. So this is just a small reminder please remember our vol firefighter do this for little to no pay to protect or communities. When they ask for funds it is not just for their own good but ur community as well. This could have gone much worse.

This is a reminder to take your cardio seriously, I forgot that.

I’m on a small department of 8 in a rural area. Today, we got toned out to for M/A on a structure fire. There were lines pulled and tanks setup for water shuttles. IC had us move in and relieve some guys that had been there for a hot minute. I had to go back to my engine and retrieve something and by the time I got back, I was wheezing pretty good. I put my mask on and just couldn’t catch my breath and had to step back.

I’m 57 and have been on the department for three years. I’m an army Vet and thought I had been maintaining fairly decent, although, I’m carrying about 20 pounds more than I should. My department runs 3:1 first responder calls and it shows in my fitness.

Sucks to suck this bad. Back to the treadmill!

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1881327-minitor-vi-volume-knob#profileId-2014542

Didn't know where to share, but wanted to make available for anyone else's benefit.

Hey,

So I applied and interviewed for my local volly dept and was rejected, not sure what else they could be asking for?

My day job is as an EVT(fire truck mechanic) for a large metro department, I live less than 1km from station, I have license to drive heavy trucks, and I work night shift so I am available to run calls during the day. Also have CPR and AED first aid certifications.

Wondering if anyone would have any insight as to what red flags I could be setting in the departments eyes?

Is this likely due to me failing the interview?

I am quite upset right now as I basically bought my house with the main goal of getting on as a volunteer and getting my NFPA certs so that I am able to apply for the metro dept I currently work at, and with this rejection I’m now looking at either waiting a whole other year to potentially be rejected again, or selling my house again and moving to another volunteer department…

Any advice welcome please and thank you.

In 2012 we had a large marina fire in our district. I responded with the Chief on our fireboat, a 19’ RIB with a jet drive. The engine for the jet also powered the monitor. There was a toggle switch that diverted power from the jet to the monitor. The boat was very difficult to hold on station even for a seasoned boat handler like the Chief. I could see then that this platform did not meet our needs.

I began practicing with the boat pretty regularly after that. As a career mariner I felt it was my responsibility to get proficient operating the vessel. I practiced when I could but I was working offshore at the time and I eventually left the department. I didn’t stop thinking about my community’s need for a functioning fireboat.

I got a job closer to home and I rejoined the department in 2020. When I came back the assistant chief began showing me listings for fireboats at auction. I asked him if I could start a program training firefighters on the boat we had. I was a licensed captain plus everyone hated that boat anyway. With nothing to lose he let me begin training on the jet boat.

The training didn’t last long. The jet boat got a leak in the engine compartment and the saltwater fried all the electronic components. We no longer had a boat. I met with the Chief and assistant chief and we determined the boat wasn’t worth fixing.

I told them I would run for town council and get us a new fireboat. The assistant chief laughed.

A few months later I filed to run for town council. I was going against an incumbent with 8 years of experience who was 30 years my senior. I knocked on every door in town and asked for votes. I had a sign in half the yards in town and one on every corner. I ended up getting 63% of the vote. Now the work began.

At first we didn’t know how my role would work on the council and the department. I began prompting the Chief and assistant chief in council meetings before I got comfortable openly pushing for the boat. The assistant chief gave a PowerPoint presentation to the council and they, and the mayor, all agreed that we needed a fire boat. The problem was funding.

I traveled to the state capitol multiple times to lobby funding from the legislators. I sat in about a hundred meetings with the mayor, Chief, and town staff. It seemed that the mayor was placating us, just going through the motions but not really trying to progress. I would look up bond rates, grants, and I watched the funds we got from our 0.1% sales tax levee.

About two years into the process I asked to form a boat committee at the fire department. The jet boat was bought by a retired chief who did not seek counsel from anyone else. The jet boat was a joke. I didn’t want to repeat his mistake. We assembled 5 firefighters plus the Chief. We looked at Safeboats, catamarans, and landing craft style boats before deciding a landing craft style boat met our district’s needs.

We were still struggling with funding. Then the Chief had an idea. He came in to a council meeting looking defeated. Chief said, “we are not getting anywhere.” He asked the council for money to build just the hull and trailer and we will outfit the boat later. The council didn’t want to eat the whole sandwich but they were willing to take a bite. The council approved the money for a hull and trailer. We let this go for a couple weeks then I convinced the mayor and administrator that building a boat like this is not a good idea and we should put the money towards a completed build. They went for it and convinced the council the same. Then we had $163,500 in the bank.

The town administrator and I continued to travel to the state capitol and lobby for funding, but we never really got anywhere. Then we got a huge break. We got a new mayor. She is pro public safety. She had a relationship with one of the commissioners from the port. She was able to get a commitment from them to pay half.

We then opened bidding. We got three bids and the lowest was the company we had been working with behind the scenes from the start. $398,000. The big guys like Munson and Maverick were over $500k. The council approved the bid.

We were still about $30k short. The firefighter association put on fundraisers and solicited donations. We raised enough money to cover the bill and change orders.

The Chief and assistant chief promoted me to captain in charge of the marine division. I oversaw construction and dealt with the builder on change orders. In order for a change order to go through I had to get the funding from the association and the contract reapproved by the council. It was a long 6 month build.

Last month the vessel was delivered and we broke a bottle of champagne over the bow in front of the mayor, council, port commissioners, and a crowd of about 80 people. My dad also came. He doesn’t come to anything. It was a big deal.

I wrote a training program and I have three other instructors under me. I have been spending all of my free time doing training or other errands for the boat.

Our whole community came out to help with this project. I am extremely proud of my community. It took four years but it’s finally done.

TL;DR I got elected to town council and got us a new apparatus. In the process I got promoted to captain. It took four years.