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I'm a recently minted volunteer firefighter in northern Solano county (about 1hr north of SF). What you're describing is pretty much how it works here, and as I
by stickfigure 6y ago
I'm a recently minted volunteer firefighter in northern Solano county (about 1hr north of SF). What you're describing is pretty much how it works here, and as I understand it, most other rural areas.
90% of our staff are volunteers. Some of the guys have EMT training (and some are EMTs in their day job) but most of us have just enough training to take vitals and do CPR until the pros arrive. Outside of fire season, maybe half the calls are medical? We're pretty remote so we get on scene faster than the ambulance. If you call 911, we show up.
- ashtonkem 6y agoFun fact, this is largely a consequence of the reduction in house fires since building codes were improved in the mid to late 20th century. As house fires got rarer, cities had a conundrum; you obviously still need firefighters when fires cropped up, but the reduced rate of them made them sit idle a lot. The shift of medical duties into firefighters was a solution to that problem; give them something productive to do between increasingly rare house fires.