It was never about the money or the lights/siren. I enjoyed the being a part of a team with a common goal of helping people in need. The right thing to do regardles.

I can honestly say I am proud to have served my City as a Volunteer FD for over twenty years, from riding the "beaver board" to Chief. At the same time I served as a Police Officer, then Deputy Sheriff. Would do it all again tomorrow if I could.

My Cousin is a retired city firefighter (Paid of course), my older brother & I were both Volunteer Firefighters all 3 of us live in Kentucky and we all 3 loved the idea of firefighting and saving the properties of other people.

1:51 Here, let me correct you: When volunteer numbers dwindle, response times go UP.

I’m a Volunteer and 15 years old, I have been in the department since 2018

im a vol. ff for 35 years and most guys with time like me are very few. I live in ny and its so expensive to buy a home here, people have to work two jobs. When I joined the FD we had 130 to 150 fireman. Today we're lucky to have 50 people. Everyone has to work, the husband and wife. Then when the baby comes along, all bets are off. Its getting dangerously short of volunteers. Its simple there is not enough time in a day, when all you do is work to pay the bills, or be homeless. Im my dept. we have fire explorers, or fire cadets, juniors, call it what you will. They are still kids and can train but there age and because of the high insurance costs, they can't go to real fires, calls,etc. I did explorer training for 29 years and most kids, young adults don;t stay and why you ask ? The same reason as the adults, they got to work two jobs or some young people three jobs to pay for college, get a car and then car insurance. Its a revolving door you can't get out of. We have tried so many different idea's to recruit and retain people, and it simply dosen't work. Im telling you it all comes back to the money. Work and no play time

so true, on call 24hrs a day, 365

When volunteer numbers go down response times go UP not down as you said in the video.

Not entirely true that volunteers are unpaid. Do they get money? No. They just get paid in free food, dirty jokes, and buckets of water on the head. Got to love the FD. God bless all the men and women who jump out of bed in the middle of the night, leave their families behind, and rush across town to help someone they've never met.

Pretty hard to recruit new young volunteers when there are no jobs in rural America. Federal and State requirements make it even harder to be a volunteer. And also the new entitled generation wants the T-shirt, license plate, hats, but don't want to earn them.

Most of volunteer fire depts in Connecticut get paid per call get check every 3 months

When volunteers go down response times go UP not down like you said in your piece.

Volunteer fire depts. Tried to fill the mandates of fulltime departments...it became rediculous to meet those demands...TRUTH

I'm a former vol firefighter in TN looking to join up with another volunteer FD

Can't pay or won't pay them? If we, in the UK can pay our retained firefighters, a retaining fee, turn out fee, attendance fee plus hourly rate on the job, plus bounties and pensions then why can't 'the best country in the world' do so? Like I said; 'can't or won't?'

I've never heard of family members being FFS at the same time. This is very unusual to me. But, I guess you do what you must

Why can't they get volunteers? because back in the late 70's the squirrels showed up and ran the good guys off, and that applies to just about every volunteer fire company in rural america

Well if they would stop their bitching and if they would have had this like back in my day when I went to high school which was back in 97 to 2001 during those years of school nothing was ever offered to us at all get nowadays it's available at every school across the damn country so I lost out on getting anything like this‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️