Recruitment and training in today's volly fire service

[scfire86]

Not really an option SC.

Yes it is. If the citizens are unwilling to pay about $100/month then they have accepted the belief of living without fire protection.

Pretty simple.

[LaFireEducator]

I don't beleive that anyone in a rural area is going to cough up $1300 ayear on thier taxes for fire protection alone.

I think most rural folks are generally quite happy with volunteer fire protection. They are realists that understand thier situation and don't expect a response equal to a response they may get living in the cities.

I know out here that's the case.

[Firegod343]

I don't beleive that anyone in a rural area is going to cough up $1300 ayear on thier taxes for fire protection alone.

I think most rural folks are generally quite happy with volunteer fire protection. They are realists that understand thier situation and don't expect a response equal to a response they may get living in the cities.

I know out here that's the case.

LFE - Two things,

First, you're wrong about those folks being realists. I don't care if you live in downtown NYC or BFE, when a house or builidng is on fire the homeowner and/or neighbors are standing out front wondering where you are, and why it is taking you so long. Those folks aren't realists.......they're taxpayers who saw the word "fire" on their property tax statement, and want to know why they aren't getting their bang for their buck.

Second, your math is short-sighted. Starting with your base number of $550,000 start reducing for the following:

1) Improved maintenance on equipment, apparatus, and stations
2) Less money spent on volunteer recruitment
3) Less money spent of overall training due to rapid turnover
4) Lowered ISO rating, subsequently lowering insurance costs
5) A number of intangibles like station security, more time spent specifically working on fire department issues, improved pre-fire planning and inspections, etc., etc.

Don't read into this that I am anti-volunteer and pushing a pro-career agenda. What you and many others need to realize is that a number of volunteer agencies across the nation are struggling to not only recruit new volunteers, but to keep the experienced veterans. Those agencies will do anything, and that includes spending large quantities of their funds, to revive a failing program without looking "outside" the box.

FG

[LaFireEducator]

Just to give you some perspective on the tax issue here:

All residential properties in Louisiana recieve an exemption for the first $75,000 of assessed value. That means in poorer communties a large pencentage of the homeowners pay NO property tax at all. They pay nothing into the fire department or district. In our district we estimate 35%-40% of our taxpayers pay no property (and no fire) taxes.

I have a house a property assessed at about $120,000. My property tax bill this year was $45.78, which included district fire taxes. According to my calculations, based on our milage and the assessed amount beyond the 75,000 exemption, my fire taxes for the year was about $11. We are in the middle of the pack as far as our milage.

We are lucky in that we have a refinary and oil wells, which covers a chunk of our budget. Our woodland also have a bit higher tax value than most because of the timber value. Most rural communties don't have that.

In our parish we also pay a seperate $26.00 EMS fee which gives us free, unlimited transport all year.

When I say that most rural residents would not pay $1300, this is the comparison as to what they are paying now, down here.

[SrDsMe]

Well I agree with most of you, that we do not do enough training, but my issue is the quality over the quantity. I come from a combiniation department where we have roughly 400 volunteers and 200 paid personnel. All of our rookies are required to complete a 140hr. Cadet class. We have no "required" amount of training to do every year, but our department holds roughly 300 training activities every year, not to mention any outside training that we do. Due to many regulations by Homeland Security and the Sate of Texas, we have some strict guidelines as to who can participate in Fire Department "goings-on." All that said, I have a few recent graduates of Cadet class that can't tell me when to use a power cone over a full-fog pattern, and when I as for a "door-pop" they want to know where the closest service station is. I understand that they go through copious amounts of training, but what are we all really learning from hours and hours of training. Who gets the attention they need to fully grasp what's going on? That may be up to the instructor/department themselves, but what is it we can do to make sure everyone "gets it?" Didn't mean to rant. Holla.

Sam