alt Hacker NewsThe firefighters in my small northwest Iowa town don't get paid at all, it's strictly volunteer. Same for our EMTs, which the county is having trouble finding volunteers for.
The firefighters in my small northwest Iowa town don't get paid at all, it's strictly volunteer. Same for our EMTs, which the county is having trouble finding volunteers for.
Back when I was hired in 2006 and going through fire school we were told 70% of the United States is volunteer.
Either due to the remoteness of rural living or just people in rural areas have more grit, the call volumes are much lower.
I live in Florida, but I am from a small rural town in MO and my mom still lives where I grew up. I was just there in August and I picked up a brochure for the county ambulance. They have 5 ambulances for the entire county and their call volume was approximately 3000 calls per year!
The county fire department I worked at has approximately 40 station and the busiest station doing 3000+ EMS calls on its own. Our department did all the 911 transports. When I left in 2020 we ran approximately 90,000 calls.