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Prior to volunteers, every household in the settlement had to have a bucket and every able-bodied person had to participate in the bucket line, enforceable by fine.
I would say no one is that’s the basis of the article. You are 100% right Cap
I guess the Chiefs are the cause of the problems in volunteer companies as well as they are in the FDNY.
I used to be the training director for a county fire training center in PA, and recruitment/retention was a total train wreck.
That’s true. But it’s also good to see the small town communities that do 250 calls a year and have their stuff together! It’s usually in small town America, but they’re still out there!
One and one - your post above has so much merit, makes so much sense and is a very efficient model . Unfortunately, throughout the country there remains too much turf guarding and power struggles. This includes EMS provision, Police Departments, and PAID fire departments. City and town mayors and councils don’t want to give up control. Fire chiefs and fire companies don’t want to give up control or change with the times (e.g Yanticin CT. The result is all too often duplication of services, costly saturation of apparatus that is poorly staffed and taxpayers overpaying for basic services. Regionalization often is the answer for efficiency, and financial benefits. We are beginning to see an increase in the merging of fire companies throughout the country but it is painfully slow as staffing continues to dwindle. In South Florida, the opposite is actually happening. In the last 3 years, Highland Beach uncoupled from a decades old merger with Delray Beach to create its own dept, Coconut Creek did the same and uncoupled from the City of Margate to form a three Station 100+ new department with better staffing , Jupiter Fl is breaking away from Palm Beach County Fire this coming Oct 1 to create a 3 Station 100+ new department, and Deerfield Beach Fl has begun the process of discontinuing its contract for services from Broward County Fire Rescue and establish its own 6 station 185+ member department with 18-24 months.
I'd imagine that in So Fla where municipalities are breaking off that it is causing the larger original department to have to reduce staffing. Are the smaller newly formed municipalities absorbing staff that already in place?
I agree, good concept...Going back to my original post, working with county officials in PA to support vol fire companies, I suggested a couple of daytime paid crews, strategically placed so that they could get an engine on the road in minutes and support the local volly fire company as a "squad" concept...you would have thought I had three eyeballs...Only broken systems get fixed; waffling ones are tolerated....And by the way, I've seen and been a part of Vol/Career fire department combos, with an exception of a tiny few, it's like mixing oil and water, no bueno.
In the case of Coconut Creek they did absorb most of the displaced positions. Highland Beach hired all new personnel. Almost no one will want to leave Palm Beach County FD to go to Jupiter. Reason is bigger department with more opportunities. However Palm Beach County refused to sell the fire stations in Jupiter to the city of Jupiter. Jupiter had to build brand new fire stations. Palm Beach County is continuing to Staff the three stations in Jupiter at full staffing under the premise of regional service to adjacent areas served by PBCFR. There is actually a PBCFR AND JUPITER fire station right across the street from each other both fully staffed. Jupiter city residents are paying for their own fire services and not paying for PBCFR STATIONS. As a result, taxpayers in the Remaining PBCFR taxing district (MSTU) will undoubtedly have to pay more and pick up the costs of operating these fire stations within a city that provides its own fire services and pays nothing to PBCFR. In fact PBCFR is currently seeking to get the Florida legislature to pass a local bill that would guarantee that any future cities that want to decouple from PBCFR would have to pay for both there own new FD and the existing PBCFR stations in that area that was annexed or reverted back to a municipal FD.