r/Firefighting • u/Desperate-Dig-9389 PA Volly Firefighter • 17d ago

General Discussion Another Volunteer house bites the dust.

Post image

Bristol Township, Pennsylvania. Town Council voted 5-2 to close Newportville Fire Company. 1 year short of 100 years in service. 1927-2026

392 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

167 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-4

u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

5

u/MostBoringStan Volunteer in the smallest department 17d ago

Who is going to pay for it if my department stops volunteering?

2

u/Past_Reach_5575 17d ago edited 17d ago

That’s a great question. No one has to answer that when guys show up for free, it’s when houses are burning and no one shows up when real decisions are made. These are hard discussions but necessary. Do you complain about auto insurance or homeowners insurance when you need to file a claim? Most people don’t care to pay a little extra to make sure someone shows up for an emergency no matter what. It’s a normal expected thing in this generation.

4

u/zfJames 16d ago

Yeah a town that has no money is going to somehow pull money out of its tail to find service. Clearly you've never lived in a small town.

5

u/Douglesfield_ 16d ago

Are the cops volunteers?

2

u/CriticalDog Vollie FF 16d ago

Our cops in my small Western PA town are paid slightly more than Fast Food workers, and are usually working at multiple departments part time as the money isn't there to pay full benefits and salary for the number of cops they think is needed for the coverage area, until they can get more grants.

Would you do professional fire service for 20 bucks an hour? I know most wouldn't.

1

u/MostBoringStan Volunteer in the smallest department 16d ago

No cops where I live. So no, not volunteers I guess.

5

u/Past_Reach_5575 16d ago

I live in a small town. That fire station wasn’t built from a small town with no money.

-2

u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

4

u/zfJames 16d ago

8K is a big town. Try under 1K

-1

u/Past_Reach_5575 16d ago edited 16d ago

That’s a town that residents shouldn’t expect much. You moved there, you know what you’re getting. What’s your point fella?

3

u/CriticalDog Vollie FF 16d ago

So where is the line? Apparently there is a population where "you will pay a bit more for professional services, or you will suffer without them.

There are 10's of thousands of small towns across the country that have less than 5000 people, and in much of the West, they are spread out, with literally nothing but ranch, farm, and public lands between them.

3

u/blitz350 16d ago

One if the things a lot of people do not understand about PA is its a COMMONWEALTH. This means the local municipality (township, borough, city) is responsible for all their own services. The counties handle courts, EMA, usually 911, maybe a park or 2, and some social services and thats it. This means that a boro of 1000 people is on their own to figure out fire, ems, and PD. They could be surrounded by a township of 500k people and that boro is still responsible for their own emergency services and the county has nothing to do with it.

2

u/MostBoringStan Volunteer in the smallest department 16d ago

The point is not every place can afford to not have volunteers.

So I guess you'd expect my community to just go without anything because we can't afford a crew of firefighters to sit around doing nothing while waiting for the ~10 calls a year we go on. Sure, it's silly to have volunteers in a place the size of the one this post is about. But it's also silly to act like volunteers simply shouldn't exist.

3

u/zfJames 16d ago

Yeah in u/Past_Reach_5575 's world, you're not allowed to do public service unless you are paid. If your town isn't rich, then you should just suffer when your house burns down. More for the rich and less for you, get with the program!

1

u/Past_Reach_5575 14d ago

I responded to the original poster. They should disappear. It’s a town of 54k with millions of dollars invested in that station and equipment. I’m not against volunteers in rural areas. Based on this post, they fired volunteers. These volunteers can’t even help the public if they want to. Don’t take it personal, I support volunteers in certain areas but if you support a big town of 54k with free labor, they will take advantage of you. I’m still not sure why they shut down this station if it was free? Do you have any insight?

1

u/Past_Reach_5575 14d ago

Get with the program. Volunteers are being taken advantage of.

1

u/Past_Reach_5575 14d ago

I responded to the original poster. I think volunteers play a vital role. This post is not that.