What is a volunteer fireman?

Answer 1

Volunteer firefighters do everything that paid, career, firefighters do. They just don't get paid to do it, and rarely have the same amount of experience as full-time firefighters.

Many fire departments operate with a combination of full-time and "on-call" personnel, meaning that "call" firefighters volunteer to work or to respond to emergencies, but they are paid something if they actually get called to an emergency.

Answer 2

A volunteer fireman is a fireman who will step into the roll of fireman without having a "job" or "career" in the fire service. Volunteers often get a modest compensation for turning out for an emergency, but they don't "make a living" as a firefighter. There are probably a pair of times we see them, and one may be that they are there to augment an existing service at an urban fire department. And we know that the second is that they deliver service where no "regular" service is available, like in a rural setting. The volunteer is not always welcome in an urban fire department as he may be seen as an "amateur" firefighter. Some firefighters unions have contractual restrictions on the retention of volunteers. Certainly it could be argued that the volunteer might actually be another hazard on the fire ground as any player who does not play for the team is part of the problem and not part of the solution. But a properly trained and motivated volunteer can deliver most effective manpower that an urban department could not afford at "regular" rates. It is far cheaper to train and outfit a half dozen volunteers than to hire one full-time professional firefighter. In rural America (and in many other places around the world), the volunteer is very often the only person standing between disaster, death and obliteration and the residents of the countryside. These individuals, these volunteers, might be barbers, salesmen, nurses or homemakers. And they will ride to the rescue in the middle of the night, or through driving rain or snow to deliver emergency services to their neighbors. Who else is going to do it if the volunteer is not? Provide a minimum of equipment and training, and they're off to the races. We all know that fires don't wait for the fireman, and if someone is injured or trapped with their life trickling out of them, anyone with any emergency training who can act as a first responder is worth a whole engine company or even a hospital emergency room -- compete with physician -- over in town 30 minutes away.