where do you live?

[sxauer]

I was interested in the poll that firehouse had on the main page, but it tossed both career personel and volunteers (who live inside their dept's response area most of the time)in the same group. I was wondering how many career personel live in their department's service area, and how big the gap is.

[firefightermatt]

I'm a vollie and I live outside our service area but the dept didnt see it as a problem considering I only live about 1/4 mile outside our area at the most.

[MalahatTwo7]

We are 100% volunteer. It's manadatory to live within our FP area, and as it turns out all of us also live within the mobile home park that the Station is located at. Our response time to the station is very very fast, with the first due out within about 3 min of the initial page.

We have had members from other parts of the district, but there have been times when they were not able to respond to either the station or to the scene because of traffic problems. Most of our calls involve MVA's on the highway and that can cause problems for guys trying to get in. Also because so many of us live right near the station, more times than not all available trucks will have already left before the guys living 'out' can get in. Just as a matter of note, we can usually respond to anywhere in our district within 7 - 10 minutes from time of page to arr on scene.

[Sleuth]

My reply of volle inside the area is a bit off, because I live outside our fire district (where folks pay taxes to the dept.), but inside the area we respond. We are discussing starting to bill folks who have fires outside the district.

[hwoods]

Our 109 members break down this way:

41 live in the First Due area

26 live elsewhere in PG County

30 live in other Maryland Counties

12 live out of state

This is not a problem as far as we're concerned. One member lives and works in Delaware, but still made over 400 runs last year. We do not depend on members to respond from home, but some still do. There are usually 8 - 10 people at the station at any time, and there are currently 7 members who live at the station. There is a different motivation in those who Volunteer with us, something to do with wanting to be on the road all the time, going from one call to another. You'll never find one of us saying that we joined the VFD to help our neighbors, we all joined to ride. I did 1084 calls last year, and I live in the next county, 12 miles from the station. Works for Me Oh, and no disrespect to our brothers and sisters in Malahat, BC, but by the time my pager goes off, the first piece is already going out the door. Stay Safe....

[Bones42]

Ya know Woodsy, Maryland must be the most unsafe place in the world with the call volumes you guys all run.

[hwoods]

It's not that long a trip from "The Beach", Bro. (Paid driver at a station next to us lives in Burlington County, NJ) Come on down for a look. Stay Safe....

[jonesy0924]

I am a volly that lives outside my stations zone however where I live is first alarm structure response from my station...I live like ten minutes from my stationa and less than 5 out of the area...

[bobsnyder]

We're really symmetrical...

6 live in our first due area
6 live outside our first due area, but in the area where we're due on structure calls via automatic mutual aid
6 live outside our first due area, and in areas where we wouldn't respond until an incident reached multiple alarms

I'm in the "outside first due/inside mutual aid" group but, because of the way the municipal lines (and their corresponding fire company jurisdictions) run, I live closer to our station than 14 of the other 17 people accounted for above, including 1/2 of those who actually live inside our first due area.

[pumper41]

The poll poses difficulty for those of us who are two hatters, I could only post my career situation. (Paid, live outside my dept's service area). Vollie wise, I currently live just outside my Rural Fire District, but are mileage and time wise closer to the station than some that live within the district.