Volunteer Firefighter vs. Career or Professional Firefighter

Ok…I don’t mean to start this post with a rant, but it seems like I need to get something off my chest. It’s not uncommon to see stickers on a car or pickup that say “Professional Firefighter”. That’s great on the surface except for the fact that us Volunteers know that it is a dig at us. The implication is that the Volunteers are not professional. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Granted, volunteers are not career firefighters because we do hold down other jobs or businesses, but we take our “job” seriously and have been through hundreds of hours of training.

Even more relevant, is that according to the National Volunteer Fire Council, 73 percent of firefighters in the United States are members of VFDs. I can’t tell what year this was true but even if the data is 10 years old, I’d bet the percentage was still well above 50 percent.

Ok, ok….. movies such as “Roxanne” starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah do help to paint the volunteers as bumbling idiots that rush to a fire and then realize no one brought a fire truck with them. I guess it’s enjoyable for city folks (movie writers and producers) to poke fun at country bumpkins, towns where the population and financial resources dictates the need for volunteers over career firefighters.

Now all that being said, there are some times when the small town atmosphere provides a few chuckles. My favorite fire call, at least in its delivery, went like this. “Attention Bishop Volunteers, Attention Bishop Volunteers, we have a report of a large brush fire in the field next to Bobby Barren’s cousin’s house.” Well, that might drive the “professional” firefighters nuts because the call didn't include an address with a major cross street, but we knew where it was.