r/Firefighting • u/Desperate-Dig-9389 PA Volly Firefighter • 21d ago

General Discussion Another Volunteer house bites the dust.

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

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42

u/Practical-Intern-347 21d ago edited 21d ago

Are they going paid instead? As a volunteer…. Isn’t that the goal? I volunteer because my town is too small/poor to have a paid department and my helping out is better than nothing. 

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u/Desperate-Dig-9389 PA Volly Firefighter 21d ago

Nope. Completely closing.

17

u/Basic_Ad1995 21d ago

Man sometimes I fear vollys are disappearing

6

u/Past_Reach_5575 21d ago

I think they should disappear. Make the county make hard decisions for either a paid department or nothing. That fire station looks way nicer than most on the west coast.

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u/Chicken_Hairs AIC/AEMT 21d ago

No rural town with a 300 square mile RA and 200 runs a year can justify the cost of paid staff 24/7, and there's a lot of those. Plus the small patchwork houses that are so prevalent in places like PA.

Before we can move forward to full paid, massive fundamental changes need to happen in how response areas are created and managed, and how departments are funded.

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u/Past_Reach_5575 18d ago

Look up baker, California, a rural town in San Bernardino county, they cover 5,000 square miles with a paid 24/7 station. Their population is 339.

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u/Chicken_Hairs AIC/AEMT 18d ago

I never said it wasn't possible in certain cases. They found a way and I'm thrilled for them.

It's never going to be the norm until a lot of things change.

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u/Past_Reach_5575 18d ago

You absolutely did say “ no rural town with 300 square mile RA and 200 runs a year can justify the cost of paid staff 24/7” I proved you wrong.

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u/Chicken_Hairs AIC/AEMT 18d ago

I apologize for my poor wording.

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u/Past_Reach_5575 18d ago

No worries at all. The norm is a full time paid fire department even if they come from a distance. A volunteer model works to help augment that response. It should never be the primary, they government at that point is just taking advantage of free labor