How would you rate volunteer fire departments?

[BikeWriter]

Inquiring minds want to know!

[In_The_Wind]

1. It's the only thing we have in most of the counties around me.

They're doing a damn fine job!

[BikeWriter]

2. Here's my credentials to discuss this. I worked for...

the Texas City Fire Department for five years, after completing the Galveston Fire Department's Cadet Training Class. I also completed sixty hours of college credit towards an Associate's Degree in Fire Technology from Galveston College.
Now, to my point. I saw American Legion Post 291 in San Leon burn to the ground yesterday, and I think the building should have been saved. Several eyewitnesses (combat veterans) told me it took all of thirty minutes for them to get water, and when I arrived there was a mob (seven or eight) volunteers milling barehanded around the front of the building. From the amount of smoke I was seeing I would have been inside the building working with a fog stream.
They were using a deluge gun on the roof, and a couple of lines on outside walls. My conclusions? They were not using aggressive fire fighting tactics, and were pissing in the breeze. I'll have to attribute this to poor training, lack of motivation, poor leadership or all of the above. There probably were some good firemen on the scene, but they had to have been in the minority or the building would have been saved.

[Nicole]

3. They do a great job

with what they have. However they don't always have the best or newest equipment. We are constantly trying to raise funds to buy equipment.

So I voted "Some of them are well trained and equipped., some are not."


All of the volunteer firefighters I've known are very well trained. Some of them are firemen by trade & do volunteer firefighting on the side. In fact one such fireman died last month here in Oklahoma. Destry Horton was a career fireman & paramedic for the City of Chickasha who died while fighting wildfires with the volunteer fire dept. of Duncan.

Edit to add:
Destry died almost a month after being injured, not while fighting the wildfires.

[BikeWriter]

6. I mourn his loss as a fellow firefighter. That is tragic.

:)

[Nicole]

10. It was tragic

I posted above that he died while firefighting. I should have posted he died from injuries sustained while firefighting. He was hospitalized for almost a month before succumbing to his injuries.

[BikeWriter]

11. Damn, I'm so sorry. One of my greatest losses was a Friend...

a Fire Captain I'd fought fires with, trained and rode horses with, and generally been best Friends. He died in a Fire Department Pumper crash on the way to an alarm. :(

[Swede]

4. Other Bikewriter.

I would have no idea,but I hope they can do the job when the time comes.

[BikeWriter]

5. As I said, I'm sure there are many good ones. Regretably,

I've seen many who aren't!

[KitchenWitch]

7. I have no other volunteer fire department to compare to

but our city's volunteer FD is very well equipped and prepared.

[BikeWriter]

12. I'm very glad. I feel anyone who volunteers has a duty...

to train like a "professional".

[JVS]

8. Way better than those fire departments that do a draft

[IronLionZion]

9. A volunteer fire department cut my car apart while I was inside

telling them not to. I ended up walking out after they cut the doors off. I was perfectly fine. :grr: my insurance didn't cover it so I lost my car.

Other than that unfortunate incident, I have the utmost respect for volunteer firemen. They risk their lives to help people out of the goodness of their hearts. It's all we have in rural America. I'd like to be a volunteer fireman sometime in the future.

[BikeWriter]

13. Ack! You met some with a Boy Scout attitude...

Some Boy Scouts feel "When in doubt, chop something down!"