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Are you familiar with the function of volunteer fire departments in the U.S.?

icebraining 9y ago
Not in the US, is there anything special them? If not, I'd say they have a different pattern of activity than almost any other municipal work: plenty of downtime with unpredictable peaks that might require huge numbers of people at a very short notice. This makes hiring professionals a huge waste except in large cities, because they'll be twiddling their thumbs most of the time.
- dawnerd 9y ago
  > This makes hiring professionals a huge waste except in large cities, because they'll be twiddling their thumbs most of the time. Fire depts are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Plenty of work to be done. To respond to a lot more than just fires too FYI. Volunteer firefighters are there to help out in areas not served by firefighters such as being out in a super rural area or when theres a big fire and there simply isn't enough staff, like wildfires. They're not volunteering to take away someones job. Some of them are just retired firefighters or veterans that want to look out for their community.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    not served by firefighters such as being out in a super rural area Right. But why are those areas not served by a professional team? Because there isn't enough work to keep them busy. Same thing with wildfires; you might need 20x more people during a wildfire than the rest of the time. It's not like you couldn't hire 20x professional firefighters to handle them - it's just that it would be a huge waste the rest of the time, as I said. My point is that firefighting is not like pothole fixing - there's no such thing as a wildfire of potholes. Which is why municipalities supporting volunteer firefighters makes sense, whereas supporting volunteer pothole fixers doesn't, in my opinion.
    - dawnerd 9y ago
      I suggest you actually come out and visit us as you clearly have no idea what its like. We do get "wildfire of potholes" after every major rain season - exactly what the article was talking about. Last year was records for us.
      - icebraining 9y ago
        Will people die if the potholes aren't handled in a few minutes? Do potholes spread to nearby homes? No, you get a lot of potholes. That's annoying, but nobody will die if the fixers take a few days to fix them.
        dawnerd 9y ago
        Again you’re showing you don’t understand the problem here. It doesn’t take them a few days. It takes them years. But whatever. No point in arguing with someone that doesn’t live in the pnw
        icebraining 9y ago
        It takes them years because they don't have enough people. My only point is that they should hire more people rather than support volunteers as avoutthere suggested. My knowledge of the pnw pothole situation is irrelevant to my point.

Not in the US, is there anything special them? If not, I'd say they have a different pattern of activity than almost any other municipal work: plenty of downtime with unpredictable peaks that might require huge numbers of people at a very short notice. This makes hiring professionals a huge waste except in large cities, because they'll be twiddling their thumbs most of the time.

dawnerd 9y ago
> This makes hiring professionals a huge waste except in large cities, because they'll be twiddling their thumbs most of the time. Fire depts are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Plenty of work to be done. To respond to a lot more than just fires too FYI. Volunteer firefighters are there to help out in areas not served by firefighters such as being out in a super rural area or when theres a big fire and there simply isn't enough staff, like wildfires. They're not volunteering to take away someones job. Some of them are just retired firefighters or veterans that want to look out for their community.
- icebraining 9y ago
  not served by firefighters such as being out in a super rural area Right. But why are those areas not served by a professional team? Because there isn't enough work to keep them busy. Same thing with wildfires; you might need 20x more people during a wildfire than the rest of the time. It's not like you couldn't hire 20x professional firefighters to handle them - it's just that it would be a huge waste the rest of the time, as I said. My point is that firefighting is not like pothole fixing - there's no such thing as a wildfire of potholes. Which is why municipalities supporting volunteer firefighters makes sense, whereas supporting volunteer pothole fixers doesn't, in my opinion.
  - dawnerd 9y ago
    I suggest you actually come out and visit us as you clearly have no idea what its like. We do get "wildfire of potholes" after every major rain season - exactly what the article was talking about. Last year was records for us.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      Will people die if the potholes aren't handled in a few minutes? Do potholes spread to nearby homes? No, you get a lot of potholes. That's annoying, but nobody will die if the fixers take a few days to fix them.
      - dawnerd 9y ago
        Again you’re showing you don’t understand the problem here. It doesn’t take them a few days. It takes them years. But whatever. No point in arguing with someone that doesn’t live in the pnw
        icebraining 9y ago
        It takes them years because they don't have enough people. My only point is that they should hire more people rather than support volunteers as avoutthere suggested. My knowledge of the pnw pothole situation is irrelevant to my point.