indepmo said:
I used to live in a town with a volunteer fire dept.
The house across the street from the fire dept. burned to the ground...
Being that I work for both a volunteer fire department and a career one, I don't feel i can let this comment stand.
Indepmo, whether you meant it or not, that statement implies that volunteers put the people in their communities at risk, and quite frankly, nothing could be further from the truth. Volunteers end up covering an area that otherwise wouldn't be covered at all.
My volunteer station once had a fire that was two blocks away - literally within sight of the station. The house was lost, but only because it had been burning for several hours before there was any outside indication that there was a fire. I was on the interior attack crew and fought hard to save what we could, but the fire was too intense.
On the other hand, a fire station for my city responded to a house fire within 2-3 blocks of their station earlier this week. It did over $1.5 million in damage, despite quick attack and a second alarm bringing in more crews. The fire had gotten into the attic and was burning fiercely, to the point that it broke through the roof as crews were trying to ventilate it.
Furthermore, with regards to the topic of firehouses burning, that's happened here before too. Things have been changed so that the culprit (the kitchen stove) and other sources can't cause this kind of situation any more.
As for the original poster's query.. Volunteers generally aren't dedicated to the fire service 24/7. (I mean, they're
dedicated, but that's not their exclusive job.) There is one volunteer department here where they arrange full-time staffing 24/7, but that's not the norm. Most volunteer departments actually have staff in the station ready to respond fairly infrequently, if at all. My department staffs the station 24/7 on weekends, because we're a fairly touristy area and that's when the lion's share of our calls occur. We occasionally have some people who take it upon themselves to attend the station in the middle of the week, but that's their perogative, if they have the time and resources to do so.
As for it taking 5 sets of tones... that kind of raises an eyebrow for me. Similar to another poster, our policy here is acknowledgement of the page within 2 minutes; if not, another page, and if no reply within 2 minutes of that, the next-in station is dispatched. If no one (or an insufficient crew) answers after 2 pages, they're not likely to answer the call of 3 more.
On the other hand, I have (as a dispatcher) sent more than two sets of tones for a department, most usually at their request. Some departments may have 'informal' duty crews who know they are to respond on the first page, and the rest of the crews will respond as requested later on. It's not outside belief for me to make a third page specifically asking for a pump operator or an aerial operator or some such.
