AI6YR Ben

The Guardian: Firefighting departments close in some US states amid lack of volunteers

"...Officials have warned of serious consequences after the number of volunteer firefighters, the bedrock of firefighting in the US, plunged, leading to entire departments closing in some states...."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/22/us-fire-departments-volunteer-firefighters

#firefighting #publicsafety #ems

Firefighting departments close in some US states amid lack of volunteers

About 65% of US firefighters are volunteers, as New York state says number has fallen to lowest level in 40 years

The Guardian
Mar 23 at 1:37amWeb
Show threadMountain VisionsMar 23
Need to pay people. It's something I wanted to do, but the time commitment was basically a full time second job which meant giving up any life I had outside of work. If I got paid, maybe worth it. Fire/EMS is the only thing we expect people to for free that should be paid.
Show threadMountain VisionsMar 23
Health insurance, pension, and at least enough pay to justify the time commitment would be ideal. I doubt it would need to be full time professional pay.
Show threadme_valentijnMar 23
@ai6yr
Wow, and I would've thought all the people who hate paying taxes for fire departments would be lining up to do the work for free themselves 🤔